The Efficacy Of Neuromuscular Electrical Stimulation In Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Patients:A Meta-analysis

Background: To evaluate the effects of Neuromuscular electrical stimulation(NMES)for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease(COPD).Methods: The PubMed,Cochrane Library,EMbase,ScienceDirect,Web of Science and Medline databases were searched from January 2001 to August 2016 to collect randomized controlled trials(RCTs)about NMES for COPD.Two authors extracted the data and evaluated the RCTs independently.Then,the RevMan 5.3 software was used to complete the meta-analysis.Results: The pooled results of thirteen RCTs involving 419 patients indicate that NMES can improve six minute walking test(6-MWT)distance(SMD=0.36,95% CI 0.12 to 0.61,P=0.003).However,NMES failled to improve SGRQ(St.George’s Respiratory Questionnaire)scores(SMD=0.16,95% CI-0.11 to 0.43,P=0.24),muscle strength(SMD=0.24,95% CI-0.03 to 0.50,P=0.08),endurance time(SMD=0.24,95% CI –0.06 to 0.54,P=0.11),muscle endurance(SMD=0.01,95% CI-0.34 to 0.35,P=0.96),FEV1/FVC(SMD=0.48,95% CI–0.20 to 1.16,P=0.17),dyspnea scores(SMD=-0.62,95% CI-1.5 to 0.26,P=0.17),the body-mass index(BMI)(SMD=0.25,95% CI–0.24 to 0.73,P=0.32),muscle fibre types(type IIa)(SMD=–0.43,95% CI–1.15 to 0.28,P=0.24),depression(SMD=-0.10,95% CI–0.42 to 0.22,P=0.54),and tumor necrosis factor-α(TNF-α)(SMD=-0.41,95% CI–1.08 to 0.26,P=0.17).Conclusion: The results showed that NMES may be beneficial for the management of COPD in improving the lower limbs function.