Electroacupuncture for postoperative pain management after total knee arthroplasty: Protocol for a systematic review and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: Total knee arthroplasty (TKA) is one of the most common joint replacement surgeries in the United States. Postoperative pain is still a major complication after TKA. Electroacupuncture (EA) has been commonly used in clinical practice for pain after TKA, but its effects and safety remain uncertain. This protocol is described for a systematic review to investigate the beneficial effects and safety of EA for postoperative pain after TKA.

METHODS: Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) related to EA treatment of pain after TKA will be collected from 3 databases of English literature, namely PubMed, Embase, and Cochrane Library, and 4 databases of Chinese literatures, namely CBM, CNKI, VIP and Wanfang database. The retrieved trials will be those published from the time when the respective databases were built to January 2018. The therapeutic effects according to the change from baseline in the amount of pain measured by the visual analogue scale (VAS) or numerical rating scale, will be accepted as the primary outcomes. We will use RevMan V.5.3 software as well to compute the data synthesis carefully when a meta-analysis is allowed.

RESULTS: This systematic review and meta-analysis will provide a high-quality synthesis of current evidence of EA for pain after TKA.

CONCLUSION: The conclusion of our systematic review will provide evidence to judge whether EA is an effective intervention for patient with postoperative pain after TKA.

PROSPERO REGISTRATION NUMBER: PROSPERO CRD 42018082407.