Effects of the Kinesio® Taping on the gait of stroke subjects: a systematic review with meta-analysis

ABSTRACT Kinesio Taping (KT) has been used in the rehabilitation of post CVA patients and several recent studies have investigated its effects on the gait of these subjects, reporting promising results. We investigated the effects of the use of KT in the gait of stroke subjects through a systematic review of the literature. Searches were conducted on databases Medline, CINAHL, SPORTDiscus, Web of Science, LILACS and PEDro, without restrictions of date or language of publication. The articles were screened independently by two evaluators and disagreements were resolved by a third party. Methodological quality was assessed according to PEDro scale. When possible, outcome measures were analyzed using the program Comprehensive Meta-Analysis, version 3.0. We included 15 studies of low to moderate methodological quality (mean 4.7). For gait speed, we included 7 studies of low to moderate methodological quality in the meta-analysis that, under the model of fixed effects, found that the KT significantly increased the gait speed of post-stroke subjects in 0.05 m/s (95%CI 0.002 to 0.100; I2=0%; p<0.05). However, for the step length, functional mobility and balance no significant difference was found (p>0.05). This systematic literature review showed there are still no evidence about the use of KT in rehabilitation of post-stroke patients in order to improve the gait. Although gait speed, according to the meta-analysis, have shown a statistically significant gain, its value cannot be considered clinically relevant to patients.