Effectiveness of Invasive Techniques in Patients with Fibromyalgia: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Objective: To attain a synthesis of the evidence on the effectiveness of invasive techniques in patients with fibromyalgia, through systematic review and meta-analysis and by assessing the methodological quality of the studies considered.

Methods: A systematic review and meta-analysis were carried out as defined in the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) statement. The bibliographic research was carried out in the PEDro, Cochrane, PubMed, Science Direct, Web of Science, Google Academics, Dialnet, and Scielo databases from September through December of 2018.

Results: Results show that invasive techniques produce a significant decrease in the pain, the impact of fibromyalgia and in the pain pressure threshold (standardized mean difference [95% confidence interval]: -0.94 [-1.44, -0.44], P of global effect= 0.0002; -0.99 [-1.69, -0.29], P of global effect= 0.006; and 0.31 [0.02, 0.61], P of global effect = 0.04, respectively). Lastly, a significant increase was observed in the quality-of-life variable after intervention (0.84 [0.30, 1.38], P of global effect = 0.002).

Conclusions: Invasive techniques are considered effective for pain relief, as well as for producing a short-term increase in the pain pressure threshold, an improvement in quality of life, and a decrease in the impact of fibromyalgia.