Effectiveness of electroacupuncture (EA) for the treatment of urinary incontinence (UI) in patients with spinal cord injury (SCI): A protocol of systematic review of randomized controlled trials.

BACKGROUND: The objective of this study is to examine the effectiveness and safety of electroacupuncture (EA) in the treatment of urinary incontinence (UI) in patients with spinal cord injury (SCI). METHODS: All potential studies will be retrieved from the electronic databases of MEDLINE, EMBASE, Cochrane Library, PsycINFO, Web of Science, CBM, and China National Knowledge Infrastructure from origin of each database up to January 31, 2020. Additionally, we will check other resources, such as Google scholar, dissertations, conference proceedings, and reference lists of included studies. No language and publication date limitations will be considered in the literature resources search. All randomized controlled trials using EA for the treatment of UI in patients with SCI will be included. Two independent investigators will perform study selection, data extraction and study quality assessment. If any conflicts occur, we will invite a third investigator to solve them. Cochrane risk of bias will be used for study quality assessment, and RevMan 5.3 software will be employed for statistical analysis. RESULTS: This study will summarize the most recent evidence to assess the effectiveness and safety of EA for the treatment of UI in patients with SCI. CONCLUSION: The results of this study will provide helpful evidence to determine whether EA is effective and safety for the treatment of UI in patients with SCI or not. PROSPERO REGISTRATION NUMBER: PROSPERO CRD42020165562.

Efficacy of alendronate for the treatment of ankylosing spondylitis: A protocol for systematic review and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: Ankylosing spondylitis (AS) is a very tricky orthopedic disorder. If such condition cannot be managed fairly well, it may significantly affect quality of life and even leads to disability among such population. A variety of studies have reported that alendronate is utilized for the treatment of AS. However, their results are still contrary, and no systematic review has addressed on this topic. Thus, this study will systematically assess the efficacy and safety of alendronate for the treatment of patients with AS. METHODS: A comprehensive literature search will be performed from the below electronic databases from their commencement to the January 31, 2020 without language and publication status limitations: PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, Allied and Complementary Medicine Database, WANGFANG, and China National Knowledge Infrastructure. Only randomized controlled trials focusing on the alendronate for the treatment of patients with AS will be considered for inclusion in this study. Two authors will independently select all identified records, extract essential data from all included studies, and appraise study quality for each eligible trial using Cochrane risk of bias. If any differences occur, another experienced author will be invited to solve them by discussion and a consensus decision will be made. We will implement RevMan 5.3 software to analyze the extracted data. RESULTS: This study will summarize high-quality randomized controlled trials to assess the efficacy and safety of alendronate for the treatment of patients with AS through primary outcome of bone densitometry; and secondary outcomes of pain intensity, quality of life, disease activity, functional status, and adverse events. CONCLUSION: This study will provide evidence to help determine whether alendronate is an effective and safe management for patient with AS or not. STUDY REGISTRATION: INPLASY202040153.

Neuromuscular electrical stimulation for cancer pain in children with osteosarcoma: A protocol of systematic review.

BACKGROUND: This systematic review will assess the effectiveness and safety neuromuscular electrical stimulation (NMES) for cancer pain (CP) in children with osteosarcoma. METHODS: This systematic review protocol will retrieve the following electronic databases from inception to June 1 in Cochrane Library, MEDLINE, EMBASE, Web of Science, Scopus, CNKI, and VIP database. Manual head-searching of reference lists and conference proceedings will be performed to further examine the articles of interest. No restrictions will be applied to language and publication status. We will utilize a 3-stage approach to scan titles, abstracts, and full-text studies against all eligibility criteria, and collect data from included trials. Study quality will be evaluated by the Cochrane Risk of Bias Tool. If possible, we will narratively summarize study results and carry out meta-analysis. RESULTS: This study will recapitulate the present high quality trials to appraise the effectiveness and safety of NMES for CP in children with osteosarcoma. CONCLUSION: The findings of this study will present evidence to determine whether NMES is effective and safe for CP in children with osteosarcoma.