Effects of warm needling therapy on symptoms of benign prostatic hyperplasia: A protocol for a systematic review and meta-analysis

Background: Benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) is the term for a type of non-malignant prostate enlargement that is most often diagnosed in men of middle age and older. Lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) are commonly observed in men afflicted with BPH. Evidence suggests that warm needling therapy could be applied clinically to relieve the LUTS associated with BPH, particularly in China, where experienced practitioners are readily available. In this review, the safety and effects of warm needling therapy are assessed in the context of treatment for LUTS associated with BPH.

Methods: First, data for relevant randomised controlled trials and the initial periods of randomised cross-over trials will be obtained from four English databases (MEDLINE, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, EMBASE, and Allied and Complementary Medicine Database) and six Chinese databases (China National Knowledge Infrastructure, Wanfang Database, SinoMed, Chongqing VIP Chinese Science and Technology Periodical Database, China Master's Theses Full-text Database and China Doctoral Dissertations Full-text Database). The primary outcomes analysed in this protocol are improvements in urological symptoms as measured by recognized urological symptom scores, while secondary outcomes include improvement of urine flow rate measures, residual urine volume, nocturia, prostate size, and quality-of-life score. In addition, safety outcomes will be analysed by assessing incidences of adverse events. Two reviewers will independently assess and select studies, extract data and assess the risk of bias. Data synthesis and risk bias assessment will be performed with Review Manager software (version 5.3).

Results: This systematic review provides a synthesis to assess the therapeutic efficacy of warm needling therapy for LUTS associated with BPH.

Conclusion: The present study will provide a clinically relevant evaluation of the current state of evidence regarding the therapeutic efficacy of warm needling therapy for LUTS associated with BPH.

Ethics and dissemination: Ethical approval is not required for this review, because private information will not be collected from the included participants. The results of the study will be published in a peer-reviewed journal.

Registration number: PROSPERO CRD42020198360.