Effectiveness comparisons of different Chinese herbal injection therapies for acute cerebral infarction: A protocol for systematic review and network meta-analysis

BACKGROUND: Acute cerebral infarction (ACI) has a high incidence, recurrence rate, and mortality. Chinese herbal injections (CHIs) are widely used in the substitution therapy of ACI. Due to the lack of randomized trials comparing the efficacy of various injections directly, it is still difficult to judge the relative efficacy. Therefore, we intend to conduct a network meta-analysis to evaluate the benefit among these CHIs. METHODS: According to the retrieval strategies, randomized controlled trials (RCTs) on CHI therapies for ACI will be obtained from China National Knowledge Infrastructure, WanFang, Chinese Scientific Journals Database, PubMed, Embase and Cochrane Library, regardless of publication date or language. Studies were screened based on inclusion and exclusion criteria, and the Cochrane risk bias assessment tool will be used to evaluate the quality of the literature. The network meta-analysis will be performed in Markov Chain Monte Carlo method and carried out with Stata 14 and WinBUGS 1.4.3 software. Ultimately, the evidentiary grade for the results will be evaluated. RESULTS: This study will compare the efficacy and safety of CHIs in the treatment of ACI, and give a more reasonable choice. CONCLUSION: Our findings will provide references for future clinical decision and guidance developing. INPLASY registration number: INPLASY202060087.