Effects of unrestricted area soft tissue manipulation on pain severity in patients with chronic neck pain: a systematic review and Meta-analysis / 中国医师进修杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To systematically evaluate of the impact of non-specific soft tissue manipulation on pain severity in patients with chronic neck pain.Methods:Trials included in Meta-analysis were determined by searching PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, Web of Science and 5 English databases in the U.S. Clinical Trial Registry. The search terms include the subject terms of neck pain, soft tissue treatment, massage, and myofascial release. Two reviewers independently selected studies, extracted data and assessed the quality of the studies. The included trials were assessed by using the Cochrane risk-of-bias tool. STATA statistical software 16.0 was used for statistical analysis. Additionally, subgroup analysis and sensitivity analysis were performed to analyze the sources of heterogeneity and assess the stability of research results. Begg funnel plot and Egger′s publication bias plot were used to assess potential publication bias.Results:This systematic review included a total of 12 randomized controlled trials (566 patients in total). The participants were 18 to 85 years old. Most of the included studies were of medium quality. This Meta-analysis validated the effectiveness of soft tissue manual therapy on alleviating pain symptoms in patients with chronic neck pain ( ES =-0.83, 95% CI -1.15 to -0.51, P = 0.001). The Begg funnel plot indicated that there may be potential publication bias. Conclusions:This Meta-analysis found that soft tissue manual therapy has a significant effect on alleviating the pain of patients with chronic neck pain. However, different pain assessment tools could have a certain impact on the Meta-analysis results.