Electroacupuncture to treat with Overactive Bladder in Postmenopausal Women: study protocol for a multicenter, randomized, controlled, parallel clinical trial

BACKGROUND: Electroacupuncture has been used for treatment in patients with overactive bladder. This study was conducted to evaluate the efficacy and safety of electroacupuncture for treating overactive bladder of postmenopausal women. METHODS/DESIGN: This is a multicenter, randomized controlled, parallel clinical trial. Two hundred ninety participants with overactive bladder syndrome will be recruited from Dongguk University Bundang Oriental Hospital and Cheonan Korean Medicine Hospital of Daejeon University and randomly allocated into one of two groups in a 1:1 ratio. One group will receive electroacupuncture (EA) and the other acupuncture (AC). The allocation will be concealed from both participants and assessors. The study period will be about 10 weeks, including 6 weeks of electroacupuncture or acupuncture treatment and a four week follow-up period. Both EA group and AT group will undergo acupuncture at 7 fixed points, and the EA group will undergo electronic stimulation at 6 points. The primary outcome will be the average number of micturitions per 24 h based on a 3-day bladder diary. The secondary outcome will comprise the 3-day bladder diary, the overactive bladder symptom score and the results of the King’s health questionnaire. DISCUSSION: The results of this trial will provide information regarding the efficacy and safety of electroacupuncture for treating overactive bladder in postmenopausal women. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT03260907. Registered on 24 August 2017. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s13063-018-2715-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.