Cho Yeeun, Lee Seunghoon, Kim Jihye, Kang Jung Won, Lee Jae-Dong
Department of Acupuncture and Moxibustion, Kyung Hee University Korean Medical Hospital, Seoul, South Korea.
Department of Clinical Korean Medicine, Graduate School, Kyung Hee University, Seoul, South Korea.
BMJ Open. 2018 Jan 26;8(1):e015461. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2016-015461.
Thread embedding acupuncture (TEA) is a special type of acupuncture that inserts certain medical threads (eg, catgut or polydioxanone) into subcutaneous tissue or muscles at specific points. Although TEA has been widely used for the treatment of musculoskeletal pain in Korea, China and Taiwan, evidence regarding its efficacy is lacking. The aim of this protocol is to evaluate the effectiveness and safety of TEA in the treatment of musculoskeletal pain, by conducting a systematic review and meta-analysis.
The following 16 databases will be searched from their inception to 14 May 2017: MEDLINE, the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, EMBASE, the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, the Allied and Complementary Medicine Database, three Chinese database (China National Knowledge Infrastructure, the Chongqing VIP Chinese Science and Technology Periodical Database and the Wanfang database) and eight Korean databases (Korean Medical Database, Korean Association of Medical Journal Editors, Korean Studies Information Service System, Korean National Assembly Digital Library, National Digital Science Library, Oriental Medicine Advanced Searching Integrated System, 'Database Periodical Information Academic and Korean Traditional Knowledge Portal'). The WHO International Clinical Trials Registry Platform will also be searched to retrieve the recently completed studies.All randomised controlled studies in which TEA was used on specific points for the treatment of musculoskeletal pain will be included and no restrictions on language will be applied. The risk of bias of each study will be evaluated by the Cochrane risk of bias tool.Mean difference or standardised mean difference for continuous data and risk ratio for dichotomous data will be calculated with 95% CIs using a random effects model or a fixed effects model. Additional subgroup and sensitivity analyses will be conducted according to a predefined protocol.
No ethical issues are predicted. The systematic review will be published in a peer-reviewed journal or conference presentation. These findings will summarise the current evidence of TEA for the treatment of musculoskeletal pain and may provide guidance for clinicians and patients to select TEA for musculoskeletal pain.
CRD42015019046.
埋线针灸（TEA）是一种特殊的针灸疗法，将特定的医用线（如肠线或聚二氧六环酮）插入特定穴位的皮下组织或肌肉中。尽管TEA在韩国、中国和台湾已被广泛用于治疗肌肉骨骼疼痛，但其疗效仍缺乏证据。本方案的目的是通过进行系统评价和荟萃分析，评估TEA治疗肌肉骨骼疼痛的有效性和安全性。
将检索以下16个数据库自建库至2017年5月14日的数据：MEDLINE、Cochrane对照试验中心注册库、EMBASE、护理学与健康相关文献累积索引、补充与替代医学数据库、三个中文数据库（中国知网、重庆维普中文科技期刊数据库和万方数据库）以及八个韩文数据库（韩国医学数据库、韩国医学期刊编辑协会、韩国研究信息服务系统、韩国国会数字图书馆、国家数字科学图书馆、东方医学高级检索集成系统、“数据库期刊信息学术”和韩国传统知识门户）。还将检索世界卫生组织国际临床试验注册平台以获取最近完成的研究。所有使用TEA在特定穴位治疗肌肉骨骼疼痛的随机对照研究都将被纳入，且不设语言限制。将使用Cochrane偏倚风险工具评估每项研究的偏倚风险。对于连续数据，将使用随机效应模型或固定效应模型计算95%置信区间的平均差或标准化平均差；对于二分数据，将计算风险比。将根据预定义方案进行额外的亚组分析和敏感性分析。
预计无伦理问题。系统评价将发表在同行评审期刊或会议报告中。这些研究结果将总结目前TEA治疗肌肉骨骼疼痛的证据，并可能为临床医生和患者选择TEA治疗肌肉骨骼疼痛提供指导。
PROSPERO注册号：CRD42015019046。
