Abstract
BACKGROUND: To evaluate the clinical efficacy of low-dye taping in the treatment of plantar fasciitis (PF) through a meta-analysis. METHODS: Two researchers conducted an independent electronic literature search to evaluate the outcomes of low-dye application in the treatment of PF. Electronic databases included PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, and Scopus from November 2024, limited to English, and search terms included "tape," "athletic tape," "taping," "low-dye taping," "fasciitis, plantar," "policeman's heel," "heel, policeman's," "heels, policeman's," "policeman's heel," "policeman's heels," "plantar fasciitis," "heel spur syndrome," "fasciitis, plantar, chronic," and "plantar fasciitis, chronic." Inclusion criteria were visual analog scale or numeric rating scale pain scores. Data were extracted and meta-analyzed using Review Manager 5.3 software. RESULTS: Eleven trials were included, all being randomized controlled trials. The results showed that, compared with the control group, the effect of low-dye ligation on the management of pain after PF surgery was better than that of the control group (mean difference = -1.24, 95% confidence interval [-2.39, -0.08], P = .04), with a statistical difference. CONCLUSION: Compared with placebo, low-dye can effectively improve pain and quality of life in patients with PF but has no advantages over other treatments. Low-dye is beneficial as an adjunctive therapy for PF, but the number of articles included in this systematic review is limited, and of variable quality, very high-quality, large-sample, multicenter randomized clinical trials are needed to confirm this.