Comparative efficacy of common rehabilitation treatments for patients with neuropathic pain after spinal cord injury: a systematic review and network meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: Neuropathic pain is a prevalent complication following spinal cord injury, imposing severe physical and psychological burdens on affected individuals. It often hinders complete physical and mental recovery. Despite numerous rehabilitation interventions being explored and implemented, the optimal treatment strategy for neuropathic pain post-spinal cord injury remains a subject of ongoing debate. To address this uncertainty, a comprehensive network meta-analysis is imperative. This analysis aims to compare the effectiveness of various rehabilitation interventions and guide clinical staff in selecting the most efficacious treatment to alleviate patients' physical and psychological distress.

METHODS: Embase, PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, CNKI, Wan Fang, Vip Journal Integration Platform and Sinomed were searched from the establishment of the database to 13 June 2024. Employing ROB 2.0 and Stata 18.0 for literature selection, quality evaluation and meta-analysis, the effectiveness of various rehabilitation interventions was assessed. These interventions were evaluated using network-level and cumulative level surface under the cumulative ranking area analysis.

RESULTS: The review included 31 studies involving 1820 patients. According to the cumulative ranking area ranking of 17 therapies, the best three interventions for reducing pain are repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation, acupuncture, and intermittent theta burst stimulation.

CONCLUSIONS: The intermittent theta burst stimulation treatment demonstrated superior efficacy in managing pain after spinal cord injury, closely followed by acupuncture and repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation. This analysis provides a solid foundation for clinical staff to select the appropriate therapeutic approaches.