Efficacy and safety of acupuncture combined with Chinese herbal medicine traditional Chinese medicine for poststroke cognitive impairment: A protocol for a systematic review and meta-analysis

BACKGROUND: Poststroke cognitive impairment (PSCI) is often secondary to poststroke, which is common in stroke patients, induced difficulty in rehabilitation and seriously affects their quality of life. Currently, effective treatments are still limited. Researches show that acupuncture combined with traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has a good effect on PSCI. However, there is no consistent conclusion at present. Therefore, THE purpose of this study is to assess the effectiveness and safety of acupuncture combined with TCM in the treatment of PSCI. METHODS: We will search the following databases from inception to January, 2022: the Cochrane Library, PubMed, Embase, Medline, Web of Science, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, China Biology Medicine, Wan Fang data, and the Chinese Science and Technology Periodical Database. All randomized controlled trials eligible for acupuncture combined with TCM for PSCI will be included in this study. Study selection, data extraction, and quality assessment will be performed by 2 reviewers independently. Bias risk assessment and data synthesis will be performed using the Review Manager software (RevMan, version 5.3) and R (version 3.6.1) software. RESULTS: We will synthesize the current studies to evaluate the effectiveness and safety of acupuncture combined with TCM in the treatment of PSCI. CONCLUSION: The systematic review will provide a new paradigm for acupuncture combined with TCM in the intervention of PSCI, and further provide scientific evidence for the efficacy and safety of acupuncture combined with TCM in the treatment of PSCI. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: INPLASY202220062.