The role of central sensitization in chronic shoulder pain. : A systematic literature review.

Abstract

The purpose of this thesis was to gather information to confirm or reject the presence of central sensitization in subjects with chronic subacromial impingement syndrome, and, if present, analyze the prevalence of this phenomenon in that population. The thesis data collection was conducted in the form of a systematic literature review. Moreover the thesis includes background information about of peripheral and central mechanisms of pain, shoulder anatomy-, shoulder impingement syndrome and central sensitization for a better understanding of the topic before going in depth on the review. In addition, this thesis aims to be published as part of a future article in a physiotherapy peer-reviewed journal.

The searching process was carried out in Ebsco, Web of Science and PubMed data-bases. As a result, eleven studies were selected and, after the methodological quality assessment using Pedro scale, only eight of them received 6/10 or more points, the minimum required to be included in the review.

This review confirmed the presence of central sensitization in subjects with chronic subacromial impingement syndrome. In addition high prevalence of this phenomenon was detected in the population. However, has to be noted that only eight papers were used in this review to make conclusions. Therefore further research is needed in order to obtain stronger evidence of the possible role of central sensitization plays in chronic subacromial impingement syndrome.