Therapeutic electrical stimulation currents in chronic non-specific low back pain: Designing a systematic review

Abstract

Introduction. The aim of this study will be to evaluate the effect of electrical stimulation currents on the pain and function in subjects with chronic non-specific low back pain. Methods. Pubmed, ISI Web of Science, Scopus, Clinical Key, Science Direct, Medline, Embase, PEDro, ProQuest, the Cochrane Library, PROSPERO, and also the MOH Thesis, MOH Articles, Magiran, and SID as the national databases will be searched. Also, Google Scholar search engine will be used. All study types except Qualitative Studies, and Narrative Reviews, i.e. Clinical Trials, Cohort, Case-controls, Cross-sectionals, Observational Descriptive, Case Report, Case Series, Ecological Studies, Systematic Reviews, thesis and dissertation, in English and Persian will be retrieved. The publication date should not be after August 2019. To ensure all the publication has been reached, search will be extended to three years before the publication date of first article found for each type of electrical stimulation currents. The search will be limited to human studies of subjects between 18-65, regardless of gender and race. The search strategy will cover PICO. The quality of studies will be determined using Consort, STROBE, NHLBI, PEDro and CASP checklists in expert consensus. Dissemination. The results of this plan will clarify which electrical stimulation current will improve pain and function in chronic non-specific low back pain. This is valuable in clinical practice to optimize therapeutic planning. © 2020, CIC Edizioni Internazionali s.r.l.. All rights reserved.