Electroacupuncture for women with stress urinary incontinence: Protocol for a systematic review and meta-analysis

BACKGROUND: Stress urinary incontinence (SUI) is a widespread complaint in the adult women. Electroacupuncture has been widely applied in the treatment of SUI. But its efficacy has not been evaluated scientifically and systematically. Therefore, we provide a protocol of systematic evaluation to assess the effectiveness and safety of electroacupuncture treatment on women with SUI. METHODS: The retrieved databases include 3 English literature databases, namely PubMed, Embase, and Cochrane Library, and 3 Chinese literature databases, namely Chinese Biomedical Literature Database (CBM), China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), and Wanfang Database. The randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of the electroacupuncture treatment on women with SUI will be searched in the above-mentioned databases from the time when the respective databases were established to December 2017. The change from baseline in the amount of urine leakage measured by the 1-hour pad test will be accepted as the primary outcomes. We will use RevMan V.5.3 software as well to compute the data synthesis carefully when a meta-analysis is allowed. RESULTS: This study will provide a high-quality synthesis to assess the effectiveness and safety of electroacupuncture treatment on women with SUI. CONCLUSION: The conclusion of our systematic review will provide evidence to judge whether electroacupuncture is an effective intervention for women with SUI. PROSPERO REGISTRATION NUMBER: PROSPERO CRD42017070947