Effectiveness of bespoke or customised orthotic treatment in plantar pressure reduction of the central metatarsals: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Background: Conservative treatment is the first therapeutical option for central heads metatarsalgia, a common foot condition. However, to our best knowledge, systematic review and meta-analysis of its effectiveness in terms of plantar pressure improvement have not been yet carried out. Our aim was to answer the following research question: Is bespoke or customized orthotic treatment effective for plantar pressure reduction in patients with mechanical metatarsalgia in the central metatarsal heads?

Methods: A systematic review and meta-analysis of the effectiveness of bespoke or customised orthotic treatment in terms of plantar pressure reduction beneath the central -2nd to 4th - metatarsal heads in mechanical metatarsalgia patients were carried out. Pubmed database was searched from September to November 2022. All type of related-topic studies were included. Cochrane Collaboration tool was used to assess the risk of bias of each study. Descriptive and frequency analyses were performed with SPSS 25.0 software. Review Manager v5.4.1 software was used to analyse the data using the inverse variance method for continuous outcomes according to a fixed or random effects model.

Results: A total of 5 studies met our inclusion criteria, with 158 participants. Bespoke or customised orthotic treatment is effective for the improvement of plantar pressure under 2nd to 4th metatarsal heads in mechanical metatarsalgia patients (MD -37.54 [95 % CI -65.84, -9.24], p = 0.009). Customised orthotic treatment is more effective than no treatment in terms of reducing plantar pressure (MD -78.63 [95 % CI -119.70, -39.16], p = 0.0002), but its effectiveness is similar to standardised footwear, standardised foot orthoses and isolated metatarsal domes.

Conclusions: We found conservative bespoke or customised orthotic treatment to be effective for the improvement of plantar pressure under the central metatarsal heads.