The International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health seeks to promote a unified language among health disciplines, which is essential for the development of clinical practice and research. This article aims to present a review of the use and application of the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health in the clinical setting of Physiotherapy. The search focused on publications between 2001 and 2015 in MEDLINE, EMBASE, PEDro, SciELO and LILACS. The articles were categorised by geographic location, type of study, population and relevance for physical therapy. A total of 128 articles were evaluated and 22 were finally selected, of which 47.8% were qualitative studies and 60.8% were conducted in Europe. The areas of greatest application were neurological and musculoskeletal. The International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health can be used to guide clinical reasoning in Physiotherapy and allows confidence in decision-making to achieve proposed goals. © 2017 Elsevier España, S.L.U. y SERMEF