Efficacy and safety of acupuncture in the treatment of post-traumatic headache secondary to mild traumatic brain injury: A systematic evaluation and meta-analysis protocol of randomized controlled trials.

INTRODUCTION: Post-traumatic headache secondary to mild traumatic brain injury in patients has become an important factor in their prognosis. Due to the lack of effective pharmacological treatments, non-pharmacological interventions such as acupuncture are considered to have greater potential. However, the efficacy and safety of acupuncture treatment have not been clearly demonstrated. The purpose of this meta-analysis protocol is to investigate the effectiveness and safety of acupuncture in the treatment of headache secondary to mild traumatic brain injury.

METHODS AND ANALYSIS: Seven English and Chinese databases will be selected and searched according to their respective search methods, spanning the period from database creation to April 2022, and the languages will be limited to English and Chinese. Only randomized controlled trials will be included. Study selection, data collection, and risk of bias control will be performed by two independent investigators. Any disagreements will be referred to a third independent investigator for decision and documentation. Revman software will be used to complete our meta-analysis, and risk of bias assessment, subgroup analysis, and sensitivity analysis will be performed to correct the results. Finally we will assess the reliability of our final results using the Recommended Guidelines Development Tool for Assessment.

ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: All data for this study will be obtained from published journals, so no ethical review will be required. The completed review will be published in a peer-reviewed journal and the findings will be further disseminated through presentation at an appropriate forum or conference.