The effectiveness of acupuncture and moxibustion for treating tenosynovitis: A systematic review and meta-analysis protocol

BACKGROUND: De Quervain's tenosynovitis is an overuse disease that involves a thickening of the abductor pollicis longus and extensor pollicis brevis tendons. Evidence shows that acupuncture and moxibustion (AM) could remarkably relieve the pain of De Quervain's tenosynovitis patients. The aim of this protocol is to determine the efficacy and safety of AM for treating De Quervain's tenosynovitis. METHODS: Several online databases including PubMed, Cochrane Library, Embase, Chinese Biomedical Literatures Database, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, WangFang Database, Chinese Scientific Journal Database will be searched from their establishment to July 1, 2020. We will include all randomized controlled trials using AM as the method for treating De Quervain's tenosynovitis, regardless of blinding or publication types. The selection of studies, data extraction and the assessment of the studies quality will be conducted by 2 reviewers separately. When there is sufficient available data for meta-analysis, we will use the RevMan V.5.3 statistical software for data synthesis. The total effective rate, range of motion of wrist ulnar deviation will be the primary outcomes, and the secondary outcomes contain Visual Analog Scale, Coney Wrist Score and side effects. We will express the result by using Risk ratio for dichotomous data and mean differences with a 95% confidence interval for continuous data. RESULTS: The results of this study be presented in corresponding journal or conferences. CONCLUSIONS: This study is designed to provide sufficient evidence to assess the exact effectiveness of AM on De Quervain's tenosynovitis. PROSPERO REGISTRATION NUMBER: CRD42020158764.