Exercise and Rehabilitation in People With Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome: A Systematic Review.
Stephanie Buryk-Iggers, Nimish Mittal, Daniel Santa Mina and 10 others
PMID 35756986WHAT IT FOUND
Exercise and rehabilitation showed improvements in muscle strength, pain, and function for adults with hypermobile EDS.
However, the evidence is weak due to high risk of bias in the included studies, so these benefits are not yet confirmed.
Key findings
01The review included 10 studies with 330 adult participants diagnosed with hypermobile EDS or hypermobility spectrum disorder.
02Most included studies had a high or critical risk of bias, limiting the certainty of the positive findings for strength and pain.
03Adverse events were rare, with only one potentially associated with study participation across all included trials.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTsWhat it means for OTs
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What it does not show
The review only included studies on hEDS and HSD, so findings do not apply to other EDS subtypes. Most included studies had a high or critical risk of bias, particularly the non-randomized ones, which makes the positive results less reliable. The interventions and outcome measures were highly heterogeneous, preventing a meta-analysis. The outcome measures used were not validated specifically for the EDS population. Only one study reported an adverse event potentially linked to the intervention, so safety data is limited.
Declared interests
The authors declared no conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read the statistically significant improvements in strength and pain as definitive proof that exercise works for EDS. The review authors explicitly state that the high risk of bias in the included studies means these findings are vulnerable to overestimation, and definitive statements about efficacy cannot yet be made.