Introduction: This systematic review protocol describes the methods that will be used to evaluate the efficacy and safety of acupotomy for the treatment of lumbar spinal stenosis.
Methods and analysis: The following electronic databases will be searched until December 2018 without language or publication status restrictions: five English databases, that is Medline, the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), EMBASE, Allied and Complementary Medicine Database (AMED), and Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL); three Korean databases, that is Oriental Medicine Advanced Searching Integrated System (OASIS), Research Information Service System (RISS), and Korea Citation Index (KCI); and three Chinese databases, that is China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), Wanfang Data, and VIP. Any clinical, randomized controlled trials using acupotomy for lumbar spinal stenosis treatment will be included. Changes in the degrees of pain and function will be assessed as primary outcomes. The total effective rate, changes in quality of life, adverse events, and amount of rescue medication used will be evaluated as secondary outcomes. Two independent researchers will perform study selection, data extraction, and risk of bias assessment. If applicable, a meta-analysis will be performed using RevMan version 5.3, with the results expressed as risk ratios or mean differences with 95% confidence intervals. According to a heterogeneity test or the number of studies included, fixed effects or random effects model will be used. The risk of bias tool from the Cochrane group will be used to evaluate the methodological quality of the included studies.
Ethics and dissemination: Ethical approval is not required because individual patient data will not be included in this study. The findings of this systematic review will be disseminated through a peer-reviewed publication or conference presentations.
Prospero registration number: CRD42018116567.