Effects and safety of traditional Chinese medicine on the gut microbiota of an adult with chronic kidney disease: A protocol for systematic review and meta-analysis

BACKGROUND: Studies have reported that changes in the abundance of gut microbiota may explain the medically helpful responses towards traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), an essential part of alternative and complementary medicine, in treating chronic kidney disease (CKD). This study aimed to illuminate the changes in the abundance of gut microbiota of TCM with CKD. METHODS: The meta-analysis was performed in the PubMed, Web of Science, EMBASE CNKI, WanFang, VIP, and CBM databases, from its inception to October 2021 to discriminate randomized controlled trials and examine the effects of TCM on CKD. Two researchers independently performed literature selection, data extraction, and quality assessment. The risk of bias of the included studies was estimated by taking into consideration the characteristics including random sequence generation, allocation concealment, blinding of patients, blinding of outcome assessment, completeness of outcome data, selective reporting, and other bias using Cochrane Collaboration's tool for assessing the risk of bias. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: From the perspective of intestinal flora, this study will provide high-quality evidence for the effectiveness and safety of TCM for CKD. It provides a new therapeutic approach for treating CKD with Chinese herbal medicine combined with Western medicine. INPLASY REGISTRATION NUMBER: INPLASY2021100118.