Traditional Chinese medicine in collaboration with conservative conventional medicine for lumbar herniated intervertebral disc: A protocol for systematic review and meta-analysis

BACKGROUND: Lumbar herniated intervertebral disc (LHIVD) is a common disease that causes low back pain. Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) with conservative conventional treatment is known to be effective at treating LHIVD, but evidence for complex TCM therapies with conventional intervention has not been sufficiently collected to facilitate quality assessment and synthesis of data. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: Studies were retrieved from the following databases: the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, EMBASE, MEDLINE/PubMed, 7 Korean databases (Korean Studies Information Service System, Korean Traditional Knowledge Portal, Oriental Medicine Advanced Searching Integrated System, Korean National Assembly Digital Library, Korean Association of Medical Journal Editors, National Digital Science Library, and Database Periodical Information Academic), Japan Medical Abstracts Society, and Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure. The risk of bias of the included studies will be assessed using the Cochrane Assessment Tool for Risk of Bias. Eligible studies were quantitatively synthesized through a meta-analysis. The primary outcome will be pain scales, and the secondary outcomes will include range of motion, questionnaires for lumbar function, questionnaire for quality of life, etc. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: Ethical approval was waived for this study protocol because it does not provide any patient data. The results of this review will be disseminated through peer-reviewed publications. REGISTRATION NUMBER: DOI 10.17605/OSF.IO/K7NJ8 (https://osf.io/k7nj8).