Efeitos do uso do kinesio taping na marcha de indivíduos pós acidente vascular encefálico: uma revisão sistemática com metanálise

Abstract

Introduction: Locomotion is the most important activity during therehabilitation process after stroke. Several studies have investigated the effects of Kinesio Taping (KT) on the gait of stroke subjects and, although the results appear promising, a recent systematic review has reported insufficient evidence of this intervention in the gait of this population. However, in addition to the study does not include meta-analysis, the searches of this review were carried out approximately three years ago, when many studies were published later. Objective: To investigate, by a systematic literature review with meta-analysis, the effects of the use of KT on the gait of individuals after stroke. Methods: The following databases were searched: Medline, CINAHL, SPORTDiscus, Web of Science, LILACS and PEDro, without restriction of date or language of publication. The search terms included words related to stroke and KT, in addition to their respective Portuguese terms. The articles were selected independently by two reviewers, and disagreements were resolved by a third. Only randomized or controlled clinical trials were selected, in which the experimental condition was the use of KT in stroke subjects. The methodological quality of the included studies was evaluated according the PEDro scale. The analyzes were performed using the Comprehensive Meta-Analysis, Version 3.0 program. The critical value for rejecting H0 was set at a significance level of 5% (2-tailed). When data were not available to be included in the meta-analysis, the difference between the comparison groups was only described. Results: Fifteen studies with a methodological quality ranging from low to moderate (mean of 4.7) were included, being 12 studies with control and experimental groups and three studies containing only intervention group. The effects of the KT were evaluated by the meta-analysis to the follows measures: gait speed, step length, functional mobility and balance. We included seven studies that demonstrated that KT significantly increased gait velocity in stroke subjects (0.05 m/s, 95% CI 0.002 to 0.100, I2 = 0%, p <0.05). However, for step length, functional mobility and balance, the meta-analysis results showed any significant effect (p> 0.05). Conclusion: This systematic review concluded that the use of KT in the gait rehabilitation of stroke patients is not an effective tool. Only walking speed, according the meta-analysis results, presented a significant improvement, but that cannot be considered clinically relevant. However, due to the low methodological quality of the studies, it is recommended to carry out further studies to clarify if, in fact, KT is not effective in the gait rehabilitation of the stroke patients.