Effectiveness and safety of massage for chronic pain in patients with knee osteoarthritis: A protocol for systematic review and meta-analysis

Abstract

Background: Chronic pain (CP) is a common and debilitating symptom in patients with knee osteoarthritis (KOA). Massage has been supported as a non-pharmacological intervention for the individual symptom relief of CP. However, relevant evidence of using massage for CP in patients with KOA has been lacking. Methods: A systematic search will be performed in the following electronic databases for randomized controlled trials to evaluate the effectiveness and safety of massage for CP of KOA: China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), Wan Fang, PubMed, EMBASE, PsycINFO, and the Cochrane Library databases from their inception to December 2021. The entire process will include study selection, data extraction, risk of bias assessment and meta-analysis. Results: This proposed study will evaluate the effectiveness and safety of massage for CP in patients with KOA. Changes in pain relief and adverse effect will be included in our outcomes. Conclusions: This systematic review will provide evidence for assessing the credibility of massage for CP in patients with KOA.