The effectiveness of acupoint herbal patching for functional constipation: Protocol for a meta-analysis and data mining

BACKGROUND: Functional constipation is a common functional problem of the digestive system that has a negative impact on physical, mental health of patients and quality of life. At present, acupoint herbal patching as an adjuvant therapy is currently undergoing clinical trials in different medical centers. However, no relevant systematic review or meta-analysis has been designed to evaluate the effects of acupoint herbal patching on functional constipation. There is also a lack of systematic evaluation and analysis of acupoints and herbs. METHODS: We will search the following 8 databases from their inception to November 15, 2020, without language restrictions: the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, PubMed, Embase, the Web of Science, the Chinese Biomedical Literature Database, the Chinese Scientific Journal Database, the Wan-Fang Database and the China National Knowledge Infrastructure. The primary outcome measures will be clinical effective rate, functional outcomes, and quality of life. Data that meets the inclusion criteria will be extracted and analyzed using RevMan V.5.3 software. Two reviewers will evaluate the studies using the Cochrane Collaboration risk of bias tool. We will use the GRADE approach to assess the overall quality of evidence supporting the primary outcomes. We will also use Spass software (Version19.0) for complex network analysis to explore the potential core prescription of acupoint herbal patching for functional constipation. RESULTS: This study will analyze the clinical effective rate, functional outcomes, quality of life, improvement of clinical symptoms of functional constipation, and effective prescriptions of acupoint herbal patching for patients with functional constipation. CONCLUSION: Our findings will provide evidence for the effectiveness and potential treatment prescriptions of acupoint herbal patching for patients with functional constipation. PROSPERO REGISTRATION NUMBER: PROSPERO CRD 42020193489.