Physiotherapy theory and practice
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Physiother Theory Pract · Mar 2017
ReviewNon-pharmacological conservative therapy for phantom limb pain: A systematic review of randomized controlled trials.
The aim of this manuscript was to investigate the effectiveness of conservative therapy for phantom limb pain (PLP). In this systematic review, CINAHL, AMED, the Cochrane database of systematic reviews, PEDro, psychology and behavioral sciences collection, and MEDLINE were systematically searched for appropriate randomized controlled trials (RCTs). Selected papers were assessed for risk of bias, and evidence was graded using the GRADE approach. ⋯ Limb liner discomfort was the only adverse effect identified. This review identifies a range of conservative therapies, many of which demonstrate preliminary evidence of potential with respect to clinically worthwhile effects above control interventions and few, if any, adverse effects. However, there is a paucity of high-quality evidence upon which to make any firm clinical conclusions.