Umbrella Review of Systematic Reviews on Shock Wave Therapy for Post-Stroke Spasticity

A 2026 umbrella review synthesizes 17 systematic reviews and meta-analyses on extracorporeal shock wave therapy for post-stroke spasticity. The review, authored by Jiayi Chang and published on figshare, includes quality assessments using AMSTAR 2 and GRADE, and evidence mapping showing 136 nodes of moderate overlap.

Use Cases

• Evaluating the overall efficacy of shock wave therapy for spasticity based on aggregated systematic review findings.
• Assessing the methodological quality and evidence certainty in a specific medical research domain based on AMSTAR 2 and GRADE ratings.
• Identifying research gaps and overlap in primary studies for stroke rehabilitation based on evidence mapping with 136 nodes.
• Informing clinical guideline development for post-stroke care based on synthesized outcomes like sensorimotor function and pain relief.

Strengths

• Aggregates findings from 17 systematic reviews and meta-analyses, providing a high-level evidence synthesis.
• Includes structured quality appraisal using AMSTAR 2 and evidence certainty ratings using the GRADE approach.
• Evidence mapping visualizes overlap across 136 primary study nodes, indicating moderate duplication.

Limitations

• The dataset is a 99.8 KB DOCX document, which is a very small text file and not a structured data table.
• Row and column counts are unknown; the content is a narrative review document, limiting direct computational analysis.
• The review notes the included systematic reviews were of generally low methodological quality, limiting the conclusiveness of the evidence.

Provenance

Source

figshare, authored by Jiayi Chang.

Collection Method

Umbrella review methodology, involving a comprehensive search of eight databases up to May 2025, independent screening, and data extraction.

Time Range

Systematic reviews included were identified up to May 2025.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-20 04:11:58.

Geography

The description notes a predominance of studies from a single country, but the specific country is not stated.