Effect of Mobilisation with Movement (MWM) on clinical outcomes in lateral ankle sprains: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Purpose: To investigate the evidence for the effectiveness of MWM's in isolation for ankle sprains. Materials and methods: Medline, Embase, CINHAL and SPORTDiscuss were searched. Any RCT or cross-over trial assessing adolescents to adults with grade I/II lateral ankle sprains, and treated with any MWM technique was included. Any conservative intervention was chosen as the comparator, and any clinical outcome was eligible as the outcome. Methodological quality was determined using the Cochrane Handbook risk of bias assessment tool. Results: Eighty-two full-texts were included after screening 1707 of title and abstracts. Six full-texts were included and data were extracted based on the outcomes of range of movement, balance or pain from patients with sub-acute to chronic sprains. Pooled data from four studies with 201 participants with chronic recurrent sprains were grouped for analysis of the effects of weight-bearing MWM on dorsiflexion range and has shown significant immediate improvements after treatment (MD = 0.91, CI = 0.06¿1.76, p = 0.04). There was insufficient data to permit analysis for evaluation of immediate or short-term benefits of MWM on other assessed outcomes. Conclusion: Weight-bearing MWM appears to be beneficial for improving weight-bearing dorsiflexion immediately after application for chronic recurrent ankle sprains compared to no treatment or sham. Long-term benefits have not been adequately investigated.