Insoles for Prevention and Treatment of Back Pain: A Systematic Review Within the Framework of the Cochrane Collaboration Back Review Group | Semantic Scholar (2024)

There is insufficient evidence to support the use of insoles or foot orthoses as either a treatment for LBP or in the prevention of LBP, and the small number, moderate methodological quality and the high heterogeneity of the available trials reduce the strength of current findings.

A systematic review of all the new rehabilitation papers published from December 2011 up to February 2012 from the Cochrane Library in order to provide to physicians involved in the field a summary of the best evidence nowadays available.

If subtalar joint hyperpronation plays a fundamental role in the pathomechanics of lower limb, and this can facilitate the development of low back pain, then controlling the abnormal mobility of subtalars joint by means of foot orthoses should improve this symptom.

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There is limited evidence that insoles alleviate back pain or adversely shift the pain to the lower extremities, including low quality studies with heterogeneous interventions and outcome measures, poor blinding and poor reporting.

The recommendations are divided in five categories: literature search, inclusion criteria, methodologic quality assessment, data extraction, and data analysis, and additional recommendations are included regarding assessment of clinical relevance, and reporting of results and conclusions.

Differences in the duration of LBP used in the studies appeared to affect the prevalence rates reported and explain much of the variation seen, and it was estimated that the point prevalence rate in North America is 5.6%.

The results of this study do not support the use of orthoses, either custom soft or semirigid biomechanical, as prophylactic treatment for weight bearing-induced back pain.

Clinicians should exercise caution when undertaking intervention strategies for limblength inequality of less than 5 mm when limb length inequality has been identified with clinical techniques, according to the literature and the own clinical experience.

It is demonstrated that the low back pain decreased significantly after the use of real insoles compared to placebo ones, and other variables such as gender, age, number of offspring, work seniority, smoking, previous use of insoles and previous medication were not found.

This study shows that it may be possible to prevent certain musculoskeletal problems in the back or lower extremities among military conscripts by using custom-made biomechanic shoe orthoses, but because care-seeking for lower extremity problems is rare, this method of prevention would be too costly.

In some medical conditions Orthopaedists and rehabilitation practitioners agree about the optimal use of orthopaedic footwear, but in some other medical conditions they are divided about the use of physiotherapy footwear.

The clinical efficacy of viscoelastic shoe inserts for modifying weight bearing-induced back pain is supported and further clinical research into the therapeutic and prophylactic value of shock-attenuating shoe insert for healthy as well as patient populations is advocated.

A critical review of the evolution of foot orthotics theory and clinical practice is presented and it is concluded that a more complete theoretical understanding of the mechanisms of foot Orthotic mechanisms awaits discovery.

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