1 Although widely used in clinical practice by many physiotherapists worldwide, there is little evidence about the efficacy or effectiveness of this intervention.2, 4 and 5 Five systematic reviews have evaluated the effect of Kinesio Taping on selected
outcomes in different populations. Williams et al6 assessed Kinesio Taping only in the prevention and treatment of sports injuries. Bassett et al and Mostafavifar et al7 and 8 assessed the effects of Kinesio Taping in people with musculoskeletal conditions. Morris et al and Kalron et al9 and 10 widened the musculoskeletal focus to other clinical areas, such as neurological and lymphatic conditions. Currently, new trials of Kinesio Taping are Verteporfin frequently being published. Although these five HDAC inhibitor review reviews were published recently, none of them included all of the following recent trials: 3, 11, 12, 13 and 14. Given this substantial amount of new data,
an updated systematic review was needed to inform clinicians and patients about the effects of this intervention in musculoskeletal conditions. The research questions of this systematic review were: Is Kinesio Taping more effective than no treatment or sham/placebo in people with musculoskeletal conditions for the outcomes of pain intensity, disability, quality of life, return to work and global impression of recovery? Is Kinesio Taping more effective than other interventions in people with musculoskeletal conditions for these outcomes? Is the addition of Kinesio Taping over other interventions more effective than other interventions alone in people with musculoskeletal conditions for these outcomes? Systematic searches were conducted of MEDLINE, Embase, CENTRAL, PEDro, SPORTDiscus, CINAHL, LILACS and SciELO. Papers were accepted in any language if a translation could be obtained.
Search strategies followed the recommendations of the Cochrane Back Review Group33. Detailed search strategies used in each database are described in Appendix 1 (see eAddenda for Appendix aminophylline 1). The date of the last search was 10 June 2013. All clinical trial registers were also searched and manual searches were performed by checking the reference lists of each eligible article. Studies were considered for inclusion if they met the criteria presented in Box 1. Conference abstracts were excluded. Studies that were conducted on healthy participants or that only collected outcomes relating to physical performance (eg, muscle strength, vertical jumping) were also excluded. The primary outcomes were pain intensity and disability measured by any validated outcome measure.