External treatment of traditional Chinese medicine for myasthenia gravis: A protocol for systematic review and meta-analysis

BACKGROUND: Myasthenia gravis (MG) is an archetypal autoimmune disorder. The conventional treatments for this disease are drugs, plasma exchange, surgical, and so on. However, this disease is difficult to cure. A mass of studies revealed that the external treatment of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) for MG is a safe and economical approach. The present study conducted a meta-analysis to compare TCM external treatment combined with modern medicine with modern medicine for MG, in order to determine which TCM external treatment intervention has the best relative efficacy, safety, and provide the best evidence for clinical practice. METHODS: PubMed, Cochrane Library, EMBASE, Web of Science, Springer, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), Wan-fang database, VIP Chinese Science and Technique Journals Database, the Chinese Bio Medical Database (CBM), and Baidu Scholar were searched. The time of publication was limited from inception to February 28, 2021. Two reviewers independently searched for the selected articles and extract the data. The RevMan V.5.3 statistical software (Cochrane Collaboration) and Stata V.16.0 software were used to conduct the meta-analysis. RESULTS: The results of the systematic review and meta-analysis will be published in a peer-reviewed journal. CONCLUSION: The present study provides a protocol that can be used in the systematic review and meta-analysis, with the intent to inform professionals on the external treatment of TCM for MG. These would lead to investigations on the use of the most external treatment of TCM for MG. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: INPLASY202110083