Efficacy and safety of Chinese herbal compound in the treatment of functional constipation: A protocol for systematic review and meta-analysis

BACKGROUND: Functional constipation refers to constipation without organic lesions caused by dietary factors, mood depression, changes in life rules, and poor bowel habits. Clinically, constipation is mainly manifested by changes of stool texture, difficulty or lack of bowel movement, and dry stool. Sometimes, it can be accompanied by abdominal distension and abdominal discomfort. Chinese herbal compound is a prescription which is composed of 2 or more medicinal flavors and is designed for relatively certain diseases and syndromes. Clinical studies have shown that TCM compounds have a good therapeutic effect on functional constipation, but there is no evidence of evidence-based medicine. The purpose of this study is to systematically evaluate the efficacy and safety of TCM compounds in the treatment of functional constipation, and to provide evidence-based basis for the clinical application of TCM compounds in the treatment of constipation. METHODS: A systematic search was performed on English database (PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, the Cochrane Library) and Chinese database (CNKI, Wanfang, Weipu (VIP), CBM), in addition to the manual retrieval of Baidu and Google academic for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) on the treatment of functional constipation with Chinese herbal compound. The retrieval time limit was from the establishment of the database to August 2020. Two researchers independently screened the literature, extracted the data and evaluated the quality of the included studies. A meta-analysis was performed using RevMan5.3 software. RESULTS: In this study, the efficacy and safety of TCM herbal compounds in the treatment of functional constipation were evaluated by the overall effective rate, recovery rate, colonic transmission function, and other indicators. CONCLUSIONS: This study will provide reliable evidence-based evidence for the clinical application of Chinese herbal compound in the treatment of functional constipation. OSF REGISTRATION NUMBER: DOI 10.17605/OSF.IO/D5ECF.