Impact of Vibration on Skin Blood Flow: A Scoping Review

Vibration forces have been reported to alter skin blood flow (SBF) and have been proposed as a noninvasive therapy for modulating exercise performance, wound healing, and thermoregulation. Although numerous studies have explored the effects of vibration on SBF, the direct effects of vibration therapy (VT) on SBF remain inconsistently characterized. This scoping review maps the existing evidence on the effects of localized and whole-body vibration (WBV) on SBF across clinical, laboratory, occupational, and therapeutic settings. The review was conducted using the Arksey and O’Malley Framework, with an initial search for “vibration” AND “skin” AND “blood” across three databases: Embase, Ovid Medline, and Web of Science. Studies included were peer-reviewed, English-language human studies published through October 2025 that evaluated the effects of vibration on SBF. Following a systematic screening process, 46 papers met the inclusion criteria. Of those, 26 (56.5%) demonstrated an overall increase in SBF with exposure to WBV or lower-extremity vibration. Fifteen studies reported decreases in SBF/FBF when examining finger blood flow after hand-transmitted or occupational vibration exposure. Five additional studies reported no significant change, mixed findings, or context-dependent responses, including alterations in reactive hyperemia or indirect measures of perfusion. Changes in SBF were influenced by several factors, including the anatomical location of vibration application, vibration duration, vibration frequency, underlying pathology, and exposure duration. Based on the findings, it is concluded that vibration alters SBF in a context-dependent manner, influenced by anatomic location, vibration frequency, amplitude, and duration of exposure, with hand vibration typically reducing SBF and lower extremity application increasing SBF. Standardized protocols are needed to further elucidate the mechanism by which vibration affects and modulates SBF.