Acupotomy versus nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs for knee osteoarthritis: Protocol for a systematic review and meta-analysis

BACKGROUND: Knee osteoarthritis (KOA), a common clinical chronic osteoarthropathy, has adverse effects on the working ability and life quality of patients. At present, acupotomy and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) have been widely applied on KOA in China and has achieved satisfactory results. However, there is no systematic review comparing the effectiveness of these two therapies for KOA. Therefore, this study will assess the efficacy and safety of acupotomy in treating KOA. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: Several databases including CNKI, Wanfang Database, CBM, VIP, PubMed, Cochrane library, Web of Science, and Embase will be used by two independent researchers to search the related clinical RCTs about acupotomy therapy for KOA patients until May 2019. Subsequently, meta-analysis will be conducted by using Review Manager 5.3, and the related data will be analyzed by using the method for GRADE. The continuous data will be presented as the WMD or SMD with 95% CI, while dichotomous data will be shown as the RR with 95% CI. CONCLUSION: Our results review will provide evidence to determine whether acupotomy can achieve the effect of NSAIDs, or whether it has advantages and safety compared with NSAIDs for patients with KOA. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: This study will not involve personal information. The ethical approval will not be required. This systematic review will be disseminated electronically through a peer-reviewed journal or international conference presentations. PROSPERO REGISTRATION NUMBER: CRD42019129089.