Acupuncture for swallowing disorder after recovery from COVID-19: A protocol for systematic review and meta analysis

Swallowing disorder is a common sequela after recovery from COVID-19. Acupuncture is an important traditional therapy for treating swallowing disorder. However, the efficacy of acupuncture for swallowing disorder after recovery from COVID-19 lacks evidence-based medicine.

All randomized controlled trials of acupuncture for swallowing disorder after recovery from COVID-19 will be retrieved and collected from December 2019 to November 2022 with no language restrictions. PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, China National Knowledge Infrastructure Database, Chinese Biomedical Database, Chinese Science and Technology Journal Database (VIP), and the Wanfang Database will be searched. Two researchers will independently select studies, extract data, and evaluate study quality. The Cochrane risk of bias tool for randomized trials will be used to assess the risk of bias in the included studies. Statistical analyses will be performed using Review Manager version 5.3.

This study will provide a high-quality and convincing assessment of the efficacy and safety of acupuncture for swallowing disorder after recovery from COVID-19 and will be published in peer-reviewed journals.

Our findings will provide a reference for future clinical decisions and guidance development.