Effect of percutaneous electrolysis on pain and disability in individuals with tendinopathy: Systematic review and meta-analysis

Objective: To assess the effects of Percutaneous Electrolysis (PE) on pain and disability in individuals with tendinopathy.

Design: Systematic Review with Meta-analysis. Databases Medline, EMBASE, CINAHL, CENTRAL, BVS, and PEDro were researched. Randomized controlled trials assessing PE's effect on pain intensity and disability in tendinopathies were included. The Cochrane risk of bias tool (RoB 2) was used to assess the risk of bias, and GRADE was used for evaluating the quality of evidence. Mean difference (MD) and standardized mean difference (SMD) with a 95% confidence interval (CI) were calculated to determine the effects of PE on pain and disability.

Results: Seven studies were included with pooled sample of 282 individuals. PE associated with other interventions was superior to other interventions in reducing pain intensity at short-term (MD = -1.22; CI = -2.07 to -0.86) and intermediate term (MD = -1.35; CI = -2.20 to -0.51). PE associated with other interventions was superior to other interventions in improving disability at short-term (SMD = -0.69; CI = -1.29 to -0.09) but not at intermediate term (SMD = -0.71; CI = -1.79 to 0.36).

Conclusions: Evidence from very low to low quality, suggests that incorporating PE with other interventions reduces pain in the short and medium term. There is evidence of very low-quality suggesting PE interventions in improving disability in the short-term.