Fig. 2

Differences in Swelling. Difference in mean values (black points) between the kinesiotape group and the control group for all outcome variables directly assessing the degree of swelling and for all time points reported in the studies. Negative differences indicate better outcomes under kinesiotape. In the studies of Donec et al. [22] and Ristow et al. [16, 19, 20] and for day 5 in the study of Bialoszewski et al. [12] results are based on change scores, in all other studies raw measurements are used as input. Most studies report a circumfence or diameter as outcome. For the study by Windisch et al. [11] we use the score from a “Principal Component Analysis2 based on eight different circumferences and omitted the eight single outcomes. For the maxillo-facial evaluaions, the three studies by Ristow et al. [16, 19, 20] use the sum of five predefined line lengths in the face, the study of Tozzi et al. [21] a volume based on a MakerBot® Digitizer 3DTM in cm³.95% confidence intervals (red lines) are shown when sufficient information was provided in the studies. They are truncated at − 5 or 5, as indicated by arrows. The green line refers to no difference between the two groups. The x-axis refers to time in days and is square root transformed. Results for differences at baseline are marked in gray. Studies are indicated by the name of the first author and the year of the publication

cf.: circumference.