Abstract
Background Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has spread from its origins to the world and become a pandemic since late 2019. It predominantly damages the lungs and causes diffuse alveolar injury with edema, cellular fibroblasts and hyaline membrane formation, resulting in acute respiratory insufficiency, respiratory failure, sepsis, acute heart injury, heart failure and other severe complications. It is also reported that moxibustion can effectively modify the negative emotions and relieve the symptoms of chest distress and impaired appetite for the patient with COVID-19. The main objective of current research is to make an assessment for effectiveness and safety of the moxibustion as an important complementary and alternative therapeutic method for COVID-19.Methods and analysis Articles for the systematic literature will be located at the MEDLINE, OVID, EMBASE, CNKI, CBM, NTR, Chi CTR databases. With no restriction about language, manual search will be conducted for potential eligible articles as supplements. Any randomized controlled trials (RCTs) with any moxibustion interventions issued by the therapeutic regimen on all patients diagnosed with COVID-19 will be included. We will include the published studies with no restriction about language. All study records of the title and abstract identified by the search strategies will be directly imported and assessed based on the eligibility criteria. Risk of individual studies for the methodological quality of eligible RCTs will be assessed with the tool from the Cochrane Collaboration’s risk of bias tool.Discussion The purpose of this study is to conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis of the efficacy and safety of moxibustion as a complementary and alternative treatment for COVID-19.No studies have investigated whether moxibustion will relieve clinical symptoms and shorten the length of hospitalization time.To the best of our knowledge, this is the first systematic review and meta-analysis program designed to update the currently available evidence. Despite the fact of controversial views in using moxibustion, if this study confirms its efficacy and safety, it could provide a better guide for clinical practice around the world.Systematic review registrationPROSPERO CRD42020176572.
Therapeutic effect and safety of Tuina on Sciatica: A protocol for systematic review and meta-analysis
