The effect of curcuminoids for treating knee osteoarthritis: A protocol for systematic review and meta analysis

Knee osteoarthritis (KOA) is 1 of the commonest cause of disability with joint pain in adults and a burden on healthcare resources. The limitations of current KOA treatment necessitate further researches to discover the more efficacious and safety treatments. There are increasing clinical studies investigating the potential protective effects of Curcuminoids in the alleviation of symptoms in patients suffering from KOA. However, the convincing evidence indicating the efficacy of curcuminoids for patients suffering from KOA remains unclear.

Several databases including PubMed, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, Embase, Chinese Biomedical Literature Database, Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure, and Wanfang Database will be searched. And the language was not limited. We will include all Randomized controlled trials that use curcuminoids to treat patients with KOA, regardless of blinding. If the pre-crossover data can be analyzed to avoid carryover effects, the crossover randomized trials also are included. Meanwhile, We will exclude non-randomized controlled trials, qualitative studies, uncontrolled clinical trials and laboratory studies. The primary end point include Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index, visual analog scale scores and Lequesne's pain functional index. The secondary end points are total effective rate and adverse effects. The Review Manager Version 5.3 will be used to perform the data synthesis and subgroup analysis.

There are evidences that supports the potential protective effects of Curcuminoids in the alleviation of symptoms in patients suffering from KOA. This systematic review and meta-analysis would provide convincing evidence indicating that curcuminoids relieve the symptoms of patients suffering from KOA.

Open Science Framework (OSF) registries (https://osf.io/fz29b) with the registration DOI: 10.17605/OSF.IO/FZ29B.