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. 2022 Aug;14(4):452-464.
doi: 10.1177/17585732211019016. Epub 2021 Jun 10.

Functional cortical changes associated with shoulder instability - a systematic review

Morissa F Livett  1 , Deborah Williams  2 , Hayley Potter  3 , Melinda Cairns  1
Affiliations

Functional cortical changes associated with shoulder instability - a systematic review

Morissa F Livett et al. Shoulder Elbow. 2022 Aug.

Abstract

Background: Glenohumeral joint instability is associated with structural deficits and/or alterations in sensory and motor processing; however, a proportion of patients with glenohumeral joint instability fail to respond to surgical and rehabilitative measures. This systematic review aimed to establish if functional cortical changes occur in patients with glenohumeral joint instability.

Methods: AMED, CINAHL, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, Embase, Medline, PEDro, Pubmed, PsychINFO and Scopus were searched from inception to 17 March 2021. Randomised controlled trials and non-randomised trials were included and quality was appraised using the Downs and Black tool.

Results: One thousand two hundred seventy-nine records were identified of which five were included in the review. All studies showed altered cortical function when comparing instability patients with healthy controls and included areas associated with higher cortical functions.

Discussion: The findings of this systematic review offer some insight as to why interventions addressing peripheral pathoanatomical factors in patients with glenohumeral joint instability may fail in some cases due to functional cortical changes. However, data are of moderate to high risk of bias. Further high-quality research is required to ascertain the degree of functional cortical changes associated with the type and duration of glenohumeral joint instability.

Keywords: Glenohumeral joint instability; cortical reorganisation.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Conflicting Interests: The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
PRISMA flow chart of search.
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