Introduction: Multiple sclerosis is a chronic autoimmune disease of the central nervous system. Progression of the disease leads to impaired mobility, in which, gait and balance impairment are the most common. In recent years, whole-body vibration exercise has been used as a complementary therapeutic method to standard neurophysiotherapy and physical fitness training. Purpose: To determine the effects of whole-body vibration exercise on balance and gait in patients with multiple sclerosis based on literature review. Methods: PubMED, PEDro and CINAHL databases have been used for literature research. The reviewed studies were published before March 2021. We included only randomised controlled trials all written in English language. Results: Six studies with a total of 191 participants were included. In three studies, the whole-body vibration exercise was compared with the same type of exercises, but performed without vibration. A control group in other three studies was not getting any treatments. Effects of whole-body vibration exercise on gait were observed only in six-minute walk test (in two studies out of three), showing no effects on the speed of walking and some other temporal and spatial variables of gait. Results of studies about effects on balance were inconsistent. One study reported improvement of reaction time to regain balance after an unexpected pertrubation. Conclusion: Whole-body vibration exercise might be more effective than the same types of exercises performed without vibration or no treatment for improving walking endurance. Whole-body vibration might also be effective for reducing the response time needed to regain verticality after an unexpected disruption which could lead to a reduced risk of falls. Further research is needed to determinate suitable combination of vibration parameters and exercise programe.
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