STUDY DESIGN: Systematic literature review. PURPOSE: To investigate the evidence related to thoracic manipulation as an intervention for the treatment of shoulder pain. BACKGROUND: Shoulder pain is a common complaint of patients seen in clinical practice. Thoracic manipulation is a technique used to treat patients of various orthopaedic diagnoses. The theory of regional interdependence provides a basis for thoracic manipulation as a treatment for shoulder pain. However, to our knowledge, there is no systematic review of the literature evaluating the effectiveness of thoracic manipulation on shoulder pain. METHODS: Searches were performed for research studies between June 2004 and June 2014 using the databases CINAHL, Cochrane Library, PEDro, PubMed, Scopus, and SPORTDiscus. The quality of papers was assessed using the GRADE approach. RESULTS: Six articles satisfied the inclusion and exclusion criteria (1 RCT, 5 observational studies). The level of evidence ranged from very low to moderate quality and recommendations for use ranged from weak recommendation for use to strong recommendation for use. CONCLUSIONS: There is evidence in the short-term that thoracic manipulation in treating shoulder pain appears to be of low risk and may have possible benefits. However, additional studies investigating thoracic manipulation and the effects on various diagnoses of shoulder pain with long-term follow-up are needed as there is no strong evidence in the current literature.

Full text (sometimes free) may be available at these link(s):      help

• PDF locator
• publisher