Doctoral Project

Effectiveness of proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation in comparison to traditional prosthetic training on unilateral lower limb amputee gait: a meta-analysis

Objective: The purpose of this meta-analysis is to assess the effectiveness of proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation compared (PNF) to traditional prosthetic training (TPT) on spatial gait characteristics with regards to step length and step width in people with unilateral lower limb amputations ages 20 – 85 years old. Data Sources: A literature search of electronic databases hosted by Henry Madden Library - CINHAL, PubMed, Science Direct, and EBSCO. Study Selection: Three level 2 randomized control trials were appraised and determined to be appropriate for this meta-analysis. Data Extraction: The articles that met the inclusion criteria were studied to evaluate the operational quality and met a PEDro score of at least a 5/10. Effect sizes were used to show the magnitude of the difference between experimental and control groups between studies. Data Synthesis: Step length and step width showed a larger effect size in favor of PNF compared to subjects who underwent TPT. Step length data showed heterogeneity between studies, but step width data showed homogeneity between studies. Conclusion: PNF is more effective than TPT in increasing step width and decreasing step width. PNF can be implemented in order to decrease step width, but the effectiveness of PNF increasing step length is equivocal.

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