External treatment of traditional Chinese medicine for radiation enteritis A protocol for systematic review and meta-analysis

Background: Radiation enteritis (RE) is a common complication that often occurs after radiotherapy for abdominal and pelvic malignancies. RE could influence patients' quality of life seriously and it is difficult to cure by conventional treatments. A lot of studies have revealed that the external treatment of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) for RE is a safe and economical approach, but there is no relevant systematic review. The present study performed a systematic review and meta-analysis to compare TCM external treatment and conventional treatment for RE to evaluate the effectiveness and safety of external treatment of traditional Chinese medicine in the treatment of RE. Methods: Cochrane Library, PubMed, Embase, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), Wan-Fang database, VIP Chinese Science and Technique Journals Database, and the Chinese Biomedical Literature Database (CBM) were searched. The time of publication was limited from inception to April, 2021. Two reviewers independently searched for the selected articles and extract the data. The RevMan V.5.3 statistical software (Cochrane Collaboration) and Stata V.16.0 software were used to conduct the meta-analysis. Results: We will show the results of this study in a peer-reviewed journal. Conclusion: This meta-analysis will provide reliable evidence for external treatment of TCM in the treatment of RE. INPLASY registration number: INPLASY202140120