• Wang XQ
• Duan PB
• Zheng M
• Yang LH
• Wang AQ
• Zhang M

• Affiliation / Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine. Jiangsu Province Hospital of Chinese Medicine. Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine
• Affiliation / Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine. Jiangsu Province Hospital of Chinese Medicine. Department of Nursing
• Affiliation / Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine. Jiangsu Province Hospital of Chinese Medicine. Department of Oncology
• Affiliation / Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine. School of Nursing
• Affiliation(G) / China / Nanjing
• Low Back Pain / therapy
• Review Literature as Topic
• Therapy, Soft Tissue / instrumentation

Objective: The purpose of this study was to review the literature on the effect of scraping therapy on chronic low back pain (LBP) from randomized controlled trials (RCTs).

Methods: Three English medical electronic databases (PubMed, Embase, and the Cochrane Library) and 2 Chinese databases (China National Knowledge Infrastructure and Wanfang) were searched. Only randomized controlled trials related to the effects of scraping therapy on chronic LBP were included in this systematic review. Study selection, data extraction, and validation were conducted independently by 2 reviewers. The methodological quality of the studies was evaluated by the Cochrane risk-of-bias tool. RevMan 5.3 software was applied to perform meta-analysis of the data.

Results: Ten studies comprising 627 participants were included. Overall, the quality of evidence was moderate owing to a lack of blinding and allocation concealment in some studies and unclear risk of selective reporting. Meta-analysis of 9 RCTs indicated that scraping therapy had a statistically significant effect on pain reduction (standard mean difference = -0.66, 95% confidence interval [CI], -0.83 to -0.49, P < .001). However, if only a single scrape treatment was carried out, the results did not show that scraping was superior to the control group regarding pain relief (mean difference = -0.35, 95% CI, -1.23 to 0.53, P = .44). Moreover, the results of 6 RCTs involving 468 participants showed significantly greater improvement in lumbar dysfunction (mean difference = -10.05, 95% CI, -13.52 to -2.32, P < .001). In addition, the results of 5 RCTs involving 393 participants showed a favorably significant effect on the overall efficacy (odds ratio = 4.74, 95% CI, 2.34-9.62, P < .001). As for follow-up effects, meta-analysis of 3 RCTs involving 241 participants showed a promising effect on pain reduction and lumbar function improvement at 1 month and 3 months after the end of treatment, respectively. Only 1 study reported adverse effects, and none were serious.

Conclusion: Scraping therapy may have a therapeutic effect for some individuals with chronic LBP. However, due to the limited amount of research and the low methodological quality of the included studies, additional large-scale, multicenter, high-quality RCTs on relieving pain intensity and improving lumbar dysfunction are still necessary.

Author keywords: Low Back Pain; Musculoskeletal Manipulations; Systematic Review: Meta-Anaylsis

Author affiliations: XQW, MZ: Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine, Jiangsu Province Hospital of Chinese Medicine, Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Nanjing, China; PBD, MZ: Department of Nursing, Jiangsu Province Hospital of Chinese Medicine, Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Nanjing, China; LHY: Department of Oncology, Jiangsu Province Hospital of Chinese Medicine, Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Nanjing, China; AQW: School of Nursing, Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Nanjing, China 

This abstract is reproduced with the permission of the publisher; full text is available by subscription. Click on the above link and select a publisher from PubMed's LinkOut feature.