Original Title: Revisión sistemática sobre la efectividad y coste-efectividad de la termoterapia profunda en el dolor vertebral de origen mecánico

Authors' objectives: To evaluate the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of deep thermotherapy in the treatment of vertebral pain of mechanical origin.

Authors' results and conclusions: RESULTS: After discarding duplicates, 76 references were selected out of the 912 references that were achieved. After this selection, 12 references (4 systematic reviews, 6 clinical trials and 2 case series) were finally included for data extraction and synthesis. Even though the general quality of the included studies was between level III and level VIII on Jovell scale, the quality of the included clinical trials was poor on JADAD scale except for one with adequate quality. No study with an adequate quality was identified for deep thermotherapy as a single intervention for mechanical vertebral pain compared to placebo. The included clinical trials evaluated the effectiveness of one or more of the interventions of interest in combination always with another treatments (manipulation and mobilization of the spine). Any of them did not find statistical significant differences at 3, 6 or 12 months after ending the treatment. The only significant differences reported by these studies were those favouring manual therapy compared to physical therapy. The results from clinical trials are in agreement with those from previous systematic reviews on the effectiveness of several physical therapies to treat neck-back pain or mechanical origin. CONCLUSIONS: The present report suggests that it is not possible to conclude on the effectiveness and/or cost-effectiveness of deep thermotherapy procedures (short wave, microwave, ultrasounds, capacitative electric transfer hyperthermia, or any combination of these) to treat mechanical vertebral pain because the evidence found was either poor or inadequate.

Authors' methods: A systematic review of the scientific literature. The search was conducted on OVID (Medline, Embase, Medline in process and CINHAL) and other databases (Cochrane Library, Centre for Reviews & Disemination, SCI, Current Contents, Indice Médico Español and PEDro). The criteria employed to select the references were the following: population (patients with mechanical vertebral pain), assessed intervention (deep thermotherapy: short wave, microwave, ultrasounds, capacitative electric transfer hyperthermia, or any combination of these), standard procedure for comparison (among them, another treatments or placebo), outcomes (effectiveness and/or cost-effectiveness) and study design (systematic reviews, clinical trials and observational studies). The studies’ quality assessment was done using the Jovell and Navarro-Rubio scale and JADAD scale for clinical trials. Data synthesis was qualitative.

Project Status: Completed

Year Published: 2009

URL for published report: https://sescs.es/revision-sistematica-sobre-la-efectividad-y-coste-efectividad-de-la-termoterapia/

English language abstract: An English language summary is available

Publication Type: Full HTA

Country: Spain

Organisation Name: Canary Health Service

Contact Address: Dirección del Servicio. Servicio Canario de la Salud, Camino Candelaria 44, 1ª planta, 38109 El Rosario, Santa Cruz de Tenerife

Contact Name: sescs@sescs.es

Contact Email: sescs@sescs.es