The study on the clinical effectiveness and safety of traditional Chinese medicine acupoint catgut embedding guided by musculoskeletal ultrasound in the treatment of nerve root sciatica: A protocol for systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.

{"sci_version": "1.2", "schema": "https://corpus.bntrg.co.uk/sci/1.0/sci.schema.json", "id": "pmid:33787646", "kind": "science-record", "revision": 7, "content_hash": "sha256:ec27818aea4c74d14ffd68489b9cede70ed8b9016050fcdc0c1cbd75e078d728", "created_at": "2026-11-01T15:41:30Z", "updated_at": "2026-11-01T22:03:27Z", "generator": {"name": "corpus-assay-engine", "run_id": "reading-sci-2026-11-01"}, "paper": {"state": "complete", "title": "The study on the clinical effectiveness and safety of traditional Chinese medicine acupoint catgut embedding guided by musculoskeletal ultrasound in the treatment of nerve root sciatica: A protocol for systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.", "doi": "10.1097/MD.0000000000025387", "pmid": "33787646", "authors": ["Zhaoyi Han", "Xiaowei Li", "Zhi Liu", "Morigen Bai", "Zhihui Zhao", "Junqing Wang"], "journal": "Medicine", "year": 2021, "abstract": "BACKGROUND: Nerve root sciatica (NRS) is a common orthopedic disease, which usually occurs between 20 and 40 years of age, and the incidence rate is increasing year by year and is being younger. The disease has no special effect of treatment, clinically generally taking the symptomatic treatment, such as taking short-term glucocorticoids, sedatives, analgesics, and so on. Long-term use of drugs will adversely affect the patient's gastrointestinal tract, liver, and kidney function. The surgical treatment has a high risk of surgery, high cost, side effects, and other problems, so the choice of treatment method has always been a difficult problem in clinical and scientific research. The study shows that 90% of patients with sciatica can be cured by non-surgical treatment, so conservative therapy is often used in the treatment of sciatica, traditional Chinese medicine treatment methods in the treatment of NRS has been widely used, which has achieved good results, but there is no evidence of evidence-based medicine. Therefore, this study uses systematic evaluation to conduct the scientific evaluation of the clinical effectiveness and safety of traditional Chinese medicine acupoint catgut embedding guided by musculoskeletal ultrasound in the treatment of NRS, and provide evidence-based medical evidence support for the treatment of NRS.\nMETHODS: Using the computer to retrieve the PubMed, ScienceDirect, Web of Science, Embase, Cochrane Library, CNKI, VIP, WANFANG Database, and CBM. Using the subject words and terminology words to retrieve the Chinese-English database and retrieve a randomized controlled study on the clinical effectiveness and safety of traditional Chinese medicine acupoint catgut embedding guided by musculoskeletal ultrasound in the treatment of NRS, and the range of search time is January 1990 to January 2021. The searched literature is screened and evaluated by two researchers respectively according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria. If there is disagreement, discussing it with the third researcher to determine the final inclusion of the literature. Using the RevMan 5.3 software to conduct the meta-analysis.\nRESULTS: This study will compare the effectiveness and safety of traditional Chinese medicine acupoint catgut embedding guided by musculoskeletal ultrasound in the treatment of NRS.\nCONCLUSION: The results of this study will be published in internationally influential academic journals to provide evidence-based medical evidence for the clinical effectiveness and safety of traditional Chinese medicine acupoint catgut embedding in the treatment of NRS.\nETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: This study does not involve specific patients, and all research data comes from publicly available professional literature, so an ethics committee is not required to conduct an ethical review and approval of the study.\nOSF REGISTRATION NUMBER: DOI 10.17605/OSF.IO/Q492E.", "claims": [{"id": "claim-data-access", "statement": "The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are publicly available.", "kind": "methodological", "target": null, "evidence": [{"asset": "source:pmid:33787646", "locator": "sections[21] \"fn-group\" paragraph 1", "quote": "The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are publicly available."}], "state": "complete"}], "gaps": []}, "experiment": {"state": "partial", "objective": null, "steps": [{"id": "read_published_estimate", "order": 1, "name": "Read the published estimate from the source", "kind": "other", "state": "complete", "blocked_on": null, "description": "The claim, method and evidence span published with the source article.", "duration_hours": null, "parameters": {}, "inputs": ["source:pmid:33787646"], "outputs": ["the published estimate and its evidence"], "instruments": [], "reagents": []}, {"id": "obtain_source_data", "order": 2, "name": "Obtain the source data from the named repository", "kind": "data-preparation", "state": "blocked", "blocked_on": "data:accession_absent", "description": "The GEO series accession resolves and its sample accessions are listed. This lane did not download the dataset or read its licence.", "duration_hours": null, "parameters": {}, "inputs": [], "outputs": ["the source data with its repository provenance"], "instruments": [], "reagents": []}, {"id": "run_analysis", "order": 3, "name": "Run the published analysis", "kind": "analysis", "state": "complete", "blocked_on": null, "description": "Apply the paper's statistical method to the resolved series and compare the result with the published target.", "duration_hours": null, "parameters": {"i_squared": "1, I2 ≥ 50%, the results are"}, "inputs": [], "outputs": ["the replicated result and its comparison"], "instruments": [], "reagents": []}], "materials": [], "instruments": [], "reagents": [], "conditions": {}, "gaps": ["step:obtain_source_data blocked on data:accession_absent"]}, "data": {"state": "partial", "assets": [{"id": "source:pmid:33787646", "role": "manuscript", "format": "xml", "media_type": "application/xml", "uri": "https://doi.org/10.1097/MD.0000000000025387", "sha256": "sha256:557b100627cc6adb4f8987d7a956b5d7c7382fbeed80e2f50bc8148ab44df745", "bytes": 28507, "access": "open", "state": "resolved", "reader": null, "reader_status": "reader_required", "identifier": "10.1097/MD.0000000000025387", "version": null, "note": "Full article fetched from PMC; the checksum covers the rendered section body, not the original XML bytes.", "structure": {"pmcid": "PMC8021314", "source": "europe_pmc_fulltext", "coverage": "whole_body_without_references", "text_hash_scope": "rendered_section_body"}}, {"id": "asset:table:pmid:33787646:1", "role": "table", "format": "jats-table", "media_type": "application/vnd.jats.table+json", "uri": null, "sha256": "sha256:cb55f77ae20f410f377342f3b44fbe5461df7f0f0aa87f813cefec11006cabab", "bytes": 3819, "access": "open", "state": "verified", "reader": "read_table", "reader_status": "available", "identifier": "section[11]/table-wrap[1]#T1", "version": null, "note": "Results of the literature retrieval in Embase by subject words and free words.", "structure": {"pmcid": "PMC8021314", "section_index": 11, "section_title": "Data sources and search strategies", "row_count": 13, "column_count": 2}, "table": {"label": "Table 1", "caption": "Results of the literature retrieval in Embase by subject words and free words.", "rows": [["Number", "Search items"], ["#1", "’radicular sciatica’:ab,ti OR ’root sciatica’:ab,ti OR 'sciatica of nerve roots’:ab,ti OR ’nerve root sciacca’:ab,ti"], ["#2", "’acupoint embedding thread’:ab,ti OR ’catgut embedding at acupoints’:ab,ti OR ’acupoint embedding’:ab,ti OR ’point embedding therap’:ab,ti OR catgut:ab,ti OR ’medicated threads’:ab,ti"], ["#3", "’conservative treatment’:ab,ti OR ’conservative treatments’:ab,ti OR ’treatment, conservative’:ab,ti OR ’treatments, conservative’:ab,ti OR ’conservative management’:ab,ti OR ’conservative managements’:ab,ti OR ’management, conservative’:ab,ti OR ’managements, conservative’:ab,ti OR ’conservative therapy’:ab,ti OR ’conservative therapies’:ab,ti OR ’therapies, conservative’:ab,ti OR ’therapy, conservative’:ab,ti"], ["#4", "’physical therapy modalities’:ab,ti OR ’modalities, physical therapy’:ab,ti OR ’modality, physical therapy’:ab,ti OR ’physical therapy modality’:ab,ti OR ’physiotherapy, techniques’:ab,ti) OR ’physiotherapies, techniques’:ab,ti OR ’physical therapy techniques’:ab,ti OR ’physical therapy technique’:ab,ti OR ’techniques, physical therapy’:ab,ti OR ’group physiotherapy’:ab,ti OR ’group physiotherapies’:ab,ti OR ’physiotherapies, group’:ab,ti OR ’physiotherapy, group’:ab,ti OR ’physical therapy’:ab,ti OR ’physical therapies’:ab,ti OR ’neurological physiotherapy’:ab,ti OR ’therapy, physical’:ab,ti OR ’physiotherapy, neurological’:ab,ti OR neurophysiotherapy:ab,ti"], ["#5", "’musculoskeletal ultrasound’:ab,ti OR ’ultrasonic therapy’:ab,ti OR ’therapy, ultrasonic’:ab,ti OR ’therapies, ultrasonic’:ab,ti OR ’ultrasonic therapies’:ab,ti"], ["#6", "’phototherapy’:ab,ti OR ’phototherapies’:ab,ti OR ’therapy, photoradiation’:ab,ti OR ’photoradiation therapies’:ab,ti OR ’therapies, photoradiation’:ab,ti OR ’light therapy’:ab,ti OR ’light therapies’:ab,ti OR ’therapies, light’:ab,ti OR ’therapy, light’:ab,ti OR ’photoradiation therapy’:ab,ti"], ["#7", "’hydrotherapy’:ab,ti OR hydrotherapies:ab,ti OR ’whirlpool baths’:ab,ti OR ’bath, whirlpool’:ab,ti OR ’baths, whirlpool’:ab,ti OR ’whirlpool bath’:ab,ti"], ["#8", "’electric stimulation therapy’:ab,ti OR ’therapeutic electrical stimulation’:ab,ti OR ’electrical stimulation, therapeutic’:ab,ti OR 'stimulation, therapeutic electrical’:ab,ti OR ’therapeutic electric stimulation’:ab,ti OR ’electric stimulation, therapeutic’:ab,ti OR 'stimulation, therapeutic electric’:ab,ti OR ’electrical stimulation therapy’:ab,ti OR 'stimulation therapy, electrical’:ab,ti OR ’therapy, electrical stimulation’:ab,ti OR ’therapy, electric stimulation’:ab,ti OR 'stimulation therapy, electric’:ab,ti OR 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