The effectiveness of acupoint herbal patching for functional dyspepsia: A protocol for systematic review and meta-analysis

BACKGROUND: Functional dyspepsia (FD) has gradually developed into a multiple disease of the digestive system that most patients may be accompanied by mental and emotional disorders, such as insomnia, anxiety, and depression. Acupoint herbal patching (AHP) is usually used as an alternative therapy for patients with FD. This study aimed to design a systematic review and meta-analysis to explore the effects of AHP on FD. METHODS: We will search the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, the Web of Science, PubMed, Embase, the Chinese Biomedical Literature Database, the Chinese Scientific Journal Database, the Wan-Fang Database, and the China National Knowledge Infrastructure for randomized controlled trials of FD treated by AHP from inception to June 30, 2021. The primary outcome measures contain clinical effective rate, the symptom score of FD, and secondary outcome measures consist of quality of life, incidence of adverse events, and recurrence rate. We will use RevMan V.5.3 software to analyze data. Two reviewers will evaluate the risk of bias and the quality of the studies by the Cochrane Collaboration risk of bias tool and the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development, and Evaluation approach, separately. RESULTS: This systematic review protocol will analyze the effectiveness, quality of life, improvement of the symptom, and safety of AHP therapy for FD. CONCLUSION: The findings of this systematic review will provide evidence to evaluate the effectiveness and safety of AHP for FD.