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

An umbrella review synthesizing 17 systematic reviews and meta-analyses on extracorporeal shock wave therapy for post-stroke spasticity, published up to May 2025. The review, authored by Jiayi Chang and registered as CRD420251124065, maps 136 evidence nodes and assesses study quality using AMSTAR 2 and GRADE. It was last updated on April 20, 2026.

Use Cases

• Assessing the methodological quality of existing evidence based on AMSTAR 2 and GRADE ratings mentioned in the description
• Identifying research gaps and evidence overlap based on the mapping of 136 nodes and the GROOVE tool analysis
• Evaluating reported outcomes of shock wave therapy, such as reductions in spasticity and improvements in sensorimotor function
• Informing clinical guideline development based on the synthesis of systematic review conclusions

Strengths

• Synthesizes findings from 17 systematic reviews and meta-analyses, providing a high-level evidence overview
• Employs standardized quality assessment tools (AMSTAR 2 and GRADE) and overlap analysis (GROOVE tool)
• Released under a permissive CC-BY-4.0 license, allowing for reuse and redistribution

Limitations

• The underlying data file is a 90.0 KB DOCX document, which is a small, text-based summary rather than a structured dataset
• Row and column counts are unknown; the document's content must be manually extracted for analysis
• The review notes the generally low methodological quality of included studies and potential geographic bias, limiting evidence conclusiveness

Provenance

Source

figshare

Collection Method

A comprehensive search of eight databases was conducted to identify systematic reviews and meta-analyses, followed by independent screening and data extraction by two scholars.

Time Range

Reviews included were published up to May 2025.

Freshness

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

Geography

The description suggests a potential geographic bias, noting a 'predominance of studies from a single country', but the specific country is not stated.