Table 3 Summary of study characteristics
From: The effectiveness of manual stretching in the treatment of plantar heel pain: a systematic review
| Â | DiGiovani et al [15] | Hyland et al [17] | Porter et al [14] | Radford et al [19] | Sharma and Loudon [20] | Wynne et al [18] |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Recruitment | Patients with plantar fasciitis not responsive to previous conservative treatment | General Practitioner's surgeries and local gyms | Orthopaedic clinic | Local community (newspaper adverts) | Local community and university | Local community & physician referrals |
Clinical signs and symptoms | Maximal pain on palpation of plantar fascia origin. Diagnosis of plantar fasciitis by a Physician | Pain > 3/10 on initial weightbearing. Pain localised at the plantar heel | Pain localised at the plantar heel. Pain at worst on initial weight-bearing | Pain localised at the plantar heel. Pain at worst on initial weight-bearing | Diagnosis of plantar fasciitis by a Physician | Diagnosis of plantar fasciitis |
Sample size for each group | A: plantar fascia stretch (non weightbearing) n = 51 B: tendo Achilles stretch (weightbearing) n = 50 | A: Stretch (non weightbearing), n = 10 B: Calcaneal taping n = 11 C: No treatment (control) n = 10, D: Sham tape (Control) n = 10 | A: tendo Achilles sustained. stretch (weightbearing) n = 54 B: tendo Achilles intermittent stretch (weightbearing) n = 40 | A: Calf muscle stretch and sham ultrasound (weightbearing) n = 46 B: Sham ultrasound (Control) n = 46 | A: Stretching exercises (plantar fascia and tendo Achilles) n = 8 B: static progressive stretch ankle brace n = 9 | A: Counterstrain (non weightbearing) n = 10 B: Placebo non-steroidal anti-inflammatory (Control) n = 10 |
Mean age (SD, range) in years | A: 44.6 (23-60) B 47.1 (31-60) | A 34.1(5.9), B 45.5 (12.0), C 40.4 (9.4), D 37.6 (10.1) | A 45.4 (11.1) B 45.9 (12.1) | A 50.7 (11.8) B 50.1 (11.0) | A 40.3 (7.0) B 44.2 (11.3) | Mean not documented (20-66) |
Symptom duration. Number of subjects and mean duration or range and percentage if unavailable (months) | A: 20 (10-12), 4 (13-18), 1 (19-24), 9 (25-36), 12 (>36). B: 5 (10-12), 15 (13-18), 8 (19-24), 3 (25-36), 5 (>36) | Not documented | A: 54% > 6 B: (53%) > 6 | A Median 13 (4-610) B Median 13 (3-121) | A 9.2 (7.7) B 12.2 (6.4) | Not documented |
Previous conservative treatment n (%) | Not documented | Not documented | A 19 (35), B 17 (43) | Not documented | "Most" | Not documented |
Body Mass Index Mean (SD) | A 28.2, B 28.4 | A 26.3 (3.8), B 24.8 (4.4), C 25.4 (4.3), D 23.6 (1.7) | A 27.7 (5.8) B 29.2 (5.6) | A: 31.6 (5.8) B: 32.1 (6.5) | Not documented | Not documented |
Hours standing per day Mean (SD) | A: 6, B: 5.4 | Not documented | Not documented | A: 7.5 (5.5), B: 9.1 (3.7) | Not documented | Not documented |