Moxibustion therapy for treating patients with postpartum urinary retention: A protocol for systematic review and meta-analysis

BACKGROUND: Postpartum urinary retention (PUR) is one of the most common complications after parturition which affect women's recovery after childbirth. Many clinical trials have shown that moxibustion, a traditional Chinese medicine therapy, is effective in treating PUR. But its effectiveness has not been evaluated scientifically and systematically. Therefore, this review aims to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of moxibustion therapy in treating patients with PUR. METHODS: We will search the following electronic databases, regardless of publication status and languages, from their respective inception dates to February 2021: the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trails, Pubmed, EMBASE, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, Chinese Biomedical Literature Database, Chinese Scientific Journal Database, and Wan-Fang Database. Clinical randomized controlled trials (RCTs) related to moxibustion therapy for treating PUR will be included. Study selection, data collection, and quality assessment will be independently conducted by 2 researchers. For data synthesis, we will select either the fixed-effects or random-effects model according to heterogeneity assessment. Cure rates and postvoid residual volume (PVRV) will be the primary outcomes. The total effective rate and first urination time will be the second outcomes. Review Manager Software (RevMan) V.5.3 will be used if it is appropriate for meta-analysis. Otherwise, a systematic narrative synthesis will be conducted. The results will be presented as risk ratio (RR) with 95% confidence interval (CI) for dichotomous data and weight mean difference (WMD) or standard mean difference (SMD) 95% CI for continuous data. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: INPLASY 202140037.