• Chia-Hung Lin, Meng Lee, Kuan-Yu Lu, Chia-Hao Chang, Shih-Shin Huang, and Chien-Min Chen.
• Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Chiayi, Taiwan.
• Clin Rehabil. 2020 Aug 1; 34 (8): 1014-1027.

ObjectiveTo compare therapeutic effects between physical therapy (PT) combined with Kinesio taping (KT) and PT alone in knee osteoarthritis treatment.Data SourcesPubMed, Embase, MEDLINE, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, Web of Science, Scopus, CNKI, WangFang Data, and Google Scholar were searched until 16 April 2020.Review MethodsRandomized controlled trials comparing pain reduction (visual analogue scale and numeric pain rating scale) and functional improvement (Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index) between PT + KT and PT in knee osteoarthritis treatment were included. The risk of bias was assessed using the Cochrane Collaboration's tool.ResultsA total of 15 studies with 546 patients were included, and their outcomes for one to six weeks after initial treatments were compared. An overall trend favoring PT + KT over PT alone was indicated by greater pain score reduction (mean difference (MD) = -0.70, 95% confidence interval (CI) = -1.14 to -0.26; P = 0.002) and functional improvement (MD = -5.45, 95% CI = -10.23 to -0.66; P = 0.03) with the former. Significant pain reduction (MD = -0.72, 95% CI = -1.18 to -0.26; P = 0.002) and functional improvement (MD = -6.05, 95% CI = -11.18 to -0.93; P = 0.02) were reported within six weeks after initial treatments.ConclusionCompared with PT alone, PT combined with KT provided better therapeutic effect regarding pain reduction and functional improvement in patients with knee osteoarthritis. The additional pain reduction and functional improvement could last at least six weeks after initial treatments.

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