Efficacy and safety of abdominal acupuncture in Parkinson’s disease: A protocol for systematic review and meta-analysis

Parkinson disease (PD) is a worldwide spread neurodegenerative disorder. Dopamine replacement therapy is currently the mainstream treatment, which can alleviate the symptoms but induces motor complications. Acupuncture therapy is effective for PD. As a form of acupuncture, the abdominal acupuncture has been used to relieve symptoms in patients with PD, but its effectiveness and safety have not yet reached a definitive conclusion. Therefore, this systematic review and meta-analysis protocol is planned to evaluate the efficacy and safety of abdominal acupuncture for PD patients. METHODS: Six English databases (PubMed, Web of Science, MEDLINE, EMBASE, Springer Cochrane Library, and WHO International Clinical Trials Registry Platform) and 4 Chinese databases (Wan Fang Database, Chinese Scientific Journal Database, China National Knowledge Infrastructure Database, and Chinese Biomedical Literature Database) will be searched normatively according to the rule of each database from the inception to August 20, 2022. Two reviewers will independently conduct article selection, data collection, and risk of bias evaluation. Any disagreement will be resolved by discussion with the third reviewer. Either the fixed-effects or random-effects model will be used for data synthesis based on the heterogeneity test. Either the fixed-effects or random-effects model will be used for data synthesis based on the heterogeneity test. The analysis will be conducted by RevMan 5.3 software according to Cochrane Handbook. RESULTS: The aim of this systematic review is to provide high-quality evidence to assess the efficacy and safety of abdominal acupuncture for patients in Parkinson’s disease. The efficacy and safety of abdominal acupuncture for PD will be comprehensively assessed from the outcomes, including the effectiveness rate. The Unified Parkinson Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS) and Webster scale, Motor symptom scores utilizing UPDRS III scale, Dopamine (DA) content, and Nonmotor symptom scores employing UPDRS I scale, Activities of daily living using UDPRS II; Complications of treatment applying UPDRS IV, antioxidant ability: super oxide dismutase activity and Lipide Peroxide (LPO) content, Content of inflammatory cytokines, tumor necrosis factor-α and interleukin-1β, and adverse events as the secondary outcome. CONCLUSION: This systematic review will explore whether abdominal acupuncture is an effective and safe intervention for patients in Parkinson’s disease.