Moxibustion for diarrhea-predominant irritable bowel syndrome: A protocol for systematic review and network meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND

Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is commonly accompanied by intestinal dysfunction, and diarrhea-predominant irritable bowel syndrome accounts for approximately 23.4% of all cases of IBS. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy and safety of moxibustion in the treatment of diarrhea-predominant irritable bowel syndrome.

METHODS

According to the retrieval strategies, randomized controlled trials (RCTs) on moxibustion therapies for IBS-D will be obtained from the China National Knowledge Infrastructure, WanFang Data, Chinese Scientific Journals Database, PubMed, Embase, and Cochrane Library, regardless of publication date or language. Studies will be screened based on inclusion and exclusion criteria, and the Cochrane risk bias assessment tool will be used to evaluate the quality of the literature. The network meta-analysis will be performed with the Markov chain Monte Carlo method and carried out with Stata 14.2 and WinBUGS 1.4.3 software. Ultimately, the quality of the evidence obtained from the results will be evaluated.

RESULTS

This study will evaluate whether moxibustion therapy can effectively treat diarrhea-predominant irritable bowel syndrome.

CONCLUSION

This study will provide evidence for whether moxibustion therapy is beneficial to the treatment of human diarrhea-predominant irritable bowel syndrome.

INPLASY REGISTRATION NUMBER: INPLASY202180003.