Cupping therapy for Treating Knee Osteoarthritis: A protocol for systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials

Abstract Introduction Cupping therapy is widely used in East Asia, the Middle East, or Central and North Europe to manage the symptom of knee osteoarthritis (KOA). The purpose of this systematic review is to evaluate the available evidence from randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of cupping therapy for treating patients with KOA. Methods The following databases will be searched from their inception until January 2017: PubMed, Embase, the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, AMED, CINAHL, four Chinese databases [WanFang Med Database, Chinese BioMedical Database, Chinese WeiPu Database, and China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI)], and six Korean medical datebases (Korean Studies Information, DBPIA, the Korean Institute of Science and Technology Information, KERIS, KoreaMed and the Korean National Assembly Library). Only the RCTs related to the effects of cupping therapy on KOA will be included in this systematic review. A quantitative synthesis of RCTs will be conducted using RevMan 5.3 software. Study selection, data extraction, and validation will be performed independently by two reviewers. Cochrane criteria for risk-of-bias will be used to assess the methodological quality of the trials. Ethics and dissemination This systematic review will not use data from individual patients and no privacy will be involved. The results will be disseminated through peer-reviewed publications.