Hefeng Tian, Haiou Qi

Nursing Department, Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, People’s Republic of China

Correspondence: Haiou Qi, Nursing Department, Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, People’s Republic of China, Email sea7312@163.com

Background: Shoulder pain is one of the most common symptoms after laparoscopic surgery, which seriously affects people’s health and quality of life. Many clinical studies have shown that noninvasive physiotherapy is the most beneficial treatment for patients, but the best approach for various noninvasive physiotherapy is unclear. The purpose of this study protocol is to compare the effectiveness of different noninvasive physiotherapy in relieving postlaparoscopic shoulder pain (PLSP).
Methods: We will search ten electronic databases including PubMed, Web of Science, Medline, Scopus, CINAHL, EMBASE, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), CNKI, WanFang Data and VIP databases from their inception to November 2023. We will select randomized controlled trials (RCTs) to evaluate the effectiveness of noninvasive physiotherapy on PLSP. Our primary outcome will be to measure the intensity of shoulder pain at 24 and 48 hours after the end of the noninvasive intervention in the included study. Secondary outcomes include incidence of shoulder pain at 24 and 48 hours, postoperative nausea / vomiting and incidence of other complications after noninvasive intervention. Then, standard network meta-analysis will be conducted using Review Manager 5.4 and STATA 18.
Results: Our systematic review and network meta-analysis will identify the best noninvasive physiotherapy for PLSP patients.
Conclusion: This systematic review will address the existing knowledge gap regarding best practice for relieving PLSP with noninvasive physiotherapy. The results of this network meta-analysis will help medical staff and patients choose the best method to relieve the PLSP. Furthermore, we hope that the results of this study will provide evidence-based for the improvement of guidelines and facilitate the decision sharing process.
Systematic review registration: PROSPERO CRD42023481829.

Keywords: physiotherapy, shoulder pain, protocol, systematic review, network meta-analysis