Tuina for diabetic peripheral neuropathy: A protocol for a systematic review and meta-analysis

BACKGROUND: Diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN) is one of the most common microvascular complications of diabetes mellitus, with an incidence ranging from 60% to 90%. With the change in modern dietary structure, the incidence of diabetes is increasing year by year, and DPN is also on the rise. Tuina therapy has been widely used in the treatment of DPN, but there is no systematic review on the treatment of DPN. Therefore, this study aimed to conduct a meta-analysis of Tuina in the treatment of DPN to clarify its efficacy. METHODS: The following electronic databases will be searched: PubMed, the Cochrane Library, Embase, Web of Science, Medline, CNKI, Chinese Biomedical Literature Database, VIP, and Wan Fang databases. We will consider articles published between database initiation and May 2021. We will use Review Manager 5.4, provided by the Cochrane Collaborative Network for statistical analysis. Clinical randomized controlled trials related to Tuina for diabetic peripheral neuropathy were included in this study. Language is limited to both Chinese and English. Research selection, data extraction, and research quality assessments were independently completed by two researchers. We then assessed the quality and risk of the included studies and observed the outcome measures. RESULTS: This study provides a high-quality synthesis to assess the effectiveness and safety of Tuina for treating diabetic peripheral neuropathy. CONCLUSION: This systematic review will provide evidence to determine whether Tuina is an effective and safe intervention for patients with diabetic peripheral neuropathy. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: The protocol of the systematic review does not require ethical approval because it does not involve humans. This article will be published in peer-reviewed journals and presented at relevant conferences. REGISTRATION NUMBER: INPLASY202150027.