Baduanjin exercise for cervical spondylotic radiculopathy: A protocol for systematic review and meta-analysis

BACKGROUND: Cervical spondylotic radiculopathy (CSR) is one of the most common public health concerns in the world. Baduanjin is very widely and popularly practiced for the management of CSR. Therefore, we conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to investigate the efficacy of Baduanjin exercise for patients with CSR. METHODS: The PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, Clinical Trials.gov, Cochrane Library, SinoMed, Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure Database, Wan Fang database, and VIP databases were searched from inception to July 2019 to identify potentially eligible studies. The methodological quality of the included studies using the risk bias assessment tool of Cochrane. All statistical analysis are conducted with Revman 5.3. RESULTS: This systematic review and meta-analysis will provide a synthesis of existing evidences for the treatment of Baduanjin on CSR. CONCLUSION: The conclusions of this study will provide evidence to evaluate the effectiveness of Baduanjin for CSR, which can further guide the promotion and clinical decisions. PROSPERO REGISTRATION NUMBER: CRD42020149659