Acupuncture for hearing loss after traumatic brain injury: A protocol for systematic review of randomized controlled trial.

Background: This study aims to systematically assess the effectiveness and safety of acupuncture on hearing loss (HL) after traumatic brain injury (TBI).

Methods: In this study, the following databases will be retrieved from inception up to the May 1, 2019: PUBMED, EMBASE, Cochrane Library, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, Allied and Complementary Medicine Database, and Chinese Biomedical Literature Database. All databases will be retrieved without any language restrictions. Two reviewers will independently carry out article selection, data collection, and risk of bias evaluation. Any disagreements will be solved by a third reviewer through discussion.

Results: This study will systematically investigate the effectiveness and safety of acupuncture for treating HL after TBI through evaluating HL assessment, hearing threshold, quality of life, and adverse events.

Conclusion: The expected findings of this study will provide latest evidence for assessing the effectiveness and safety of acupuncture for HL after TBI.

Ethics And Dissemination: This study is supposed to be published in a peer-reviewed journal. No ethical approval is needed because this study will based on the literature analysis, but not the individual patient.

Prospero Registration Number: PROSPERO CRD42019133417.