Adding Manual Therapy to a Respiratory-Rehabilitation Program in Patients with Respiratory Disorders: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis with a Meta-Regression.

Ferran Cuenca-Martínez, Núria Sempere-Rubio, Enrique Carrasco-González, Francisco M Martínez-Arnau

Abstract readReview

In one paragraph

Review in Journal of chiropractic medicine, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

0numbers the graph read from it

0cells of the map it votes in

1citing papers in PubMed

–field-weighted citation impact

1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

1 citing paper in PubMed.

Effectiveness of Adding Thoracic Manual Therapy to Conventional Pulmonary Rehabilitation for Improving Pulmonary Function and Chest Expansion in Adults with Restrictive Ventilatory Impairment: A Randomized Controlled Trial.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026
Article

4 · The record

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PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

4 authors.

Ferran Cuenca-MartínezDepartment of Physiotherapy, University of Valencia, Valencia, Spain.

Núria Sempere-RubioDepartment of Physiotherapy, University of Valencia, Valencia, Spain.

Enrique Carrasco-GonzálezDepartamento de Fisioterapia, Universidad Europea Miguel de Cervantes, Valladolid, Spain.

Francisco M Martínez-ArnauDepartment of Physiotherapy, University of Valencia, Valencia, Spain.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Objective: The main aim of this study was to assess the effects of adding MT to a Respiratory Rehabilitation (RR) program in patients with Respiratory Disorders (RD). Methods: A systematic search was carried out in PubMed, EMBASE, CINAHL, PEDro and Google Scholar (February 1 Results: In total, 6 studies were included. Regarding the pulmonary function parameters, no significant effects were found in favor of adding MT to a RR program. However, the meta-analysis showed a significant improvement of 6-MWT when MT were added to a RR with a small clinical effect (n = 6, SMD = -0.55 (-1.01 to -0.09)). Lastly, the meta-regression analysis revealed that the intervention time of MT was not significantly correlated with the improvement of FEV1 (R2 = 52.49%, Conclusions: There is low-quality evidence that adding MT to an RR program can improve the exercise capacity in patients with RD. However, MT plus RR showed no effect on pulmonary function parameters, also with low-quality evidence.

Indexed as

Functional capacityManual TherapyRespiratory disturbancesRespiratory function

Identifiers

PMID42152910

DOI10.1016/j.jcm.2025.09.003

PMCPMC12803990

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