Scientific evidence of acupuncture for post-stroke motor impairment: protocol for an overview of systematic reviews and meta-analyses.

Abstract

Several systematic reviews and meta-analyses (SRs/MAs) of clinical trials showed the efficacy of acupuncture for post-stroke motor impairment. To systematically estimate and synthesise these results, we aimed to conduct an overview of SRs/MAs to summarise the evidence and evaluate the methodological quality regarding the effectiveness and safety of acupuncture for post-stroke motor impairment. This is a protocol for an overview of SRs/MAs. A literature search will be conducted in PubMed, Embase, Web of Science and Cochrane Central Registry of Controlled Trials from the construction of the database to March 2024. SRs/MAs evaluating the efficacy of acupuncture in post-stroke motor impairment patients will be included. Two independent investigators will screen and evaluate related SRs/MAs back-to-back. We will extract data into a predefined form designed to summarise the key characteristics of each study. The evaluation of methodological quality of the included SRs/MAs will be assessed using AMSTAR-2, the PRISMA 2020 checklist and the GRADE grading system. Ethics approval is not required for this overview as we will only analyse published literature. The results will be published in a peer-reviewed journal. CRD42024502006.