Evaluation of efficiency and safety of muscular region's acupuncture treatments for knee osteoarthritis: A protocol for systematic review and network meta-analysis

• Published in: Medicine (Baltimore) Vol. 100; no. 31; p. e26810
• Main Authors: Deng, Xiaoling, Li, Bingru, Hou, Xinju, Xu, Xing, Xiong, Wei
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Lippincott Williams & Wilkins 06.08.2021
• Subjects: Acupuncture Therapy - adverse effects; Acupuncture Therapy - methods; Humans; Network Meta-Analysis; Osteoarthritis, Knee - therapy; Research Design; Study Protocol Systematic Review; Systematic Reviews as Topic; Treatment Outcome
• ISSN: 0025-7974; 1536-5964
• DOI: 10.1097/MD.0000000000026810

As a chronic degenerative disease, knee osteoarthritis (KOA) is mainly characterized by loose ligaments around the knee joint, degeneration of cartilage in the knee joint, and atrophy of surrounding muscles. According to related investigations, the incidence of knee osteoarthritis in China is 8.1%, of which 10.3% are women and 5.7% are men. Therefore, in order to improve the therapeutic effect of KOA, we must constantly explore new ways to treat the disease. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness and safety of acupuncture with needle knife, blade needle, long-round needle, fire needle, micro-needle knife with conventional acupuncture intervention in KOA. Computer search of PubMed, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, CNKI, Wangfang, and VIP database, search for randomized controlled trials of muscular region's acupuncture therapy on KOA, the search time limit is to build the database until July 9, 2021. To ensure the comprehensiveness of the search, relevant references and conference literature are also included. After 2 researchers independently screened the literature, extracted data, and evaluated the risk of bias in the included studies, the Stata 14.0 software was used for data analysis. The effectiveness and safety of muscular region's acupuncture in the treatment of patients with KOA will be systematically evaluated. The results of this study will provide strong evidence to determine whether muscular region's acupuncture is effective in the treatment of KOA. INPLASY202170031 (https://inplasy.com/inplasy-2021-7-0031/).