Effectiveness of neuromuscular electrical stimulation for interstitial cystitis: a protocol of systematic review and meta-analysis

Background: This study will examine the effectiveness and safety of neuromuscular electrical stimulation (NMES) for the treatment of patients with interstitial cystitis (IC). Methods We will retrieve the following electronic databases from their commencements to the March 1, 2020 to discover all related potential studies: MEDLINE, EMBASE, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, CINAHL, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, Chinese Biomedical Literature Database, Chinese Scientific Journal Database, and WANFANG Database. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) related to the NMES for the treatment of patients with IC will be included, regardless publication status and language. Literature selection, data collection, and study quality assessment will be independently performed by two authors. The extracted data will be expressed as risk ratio and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for dichotomous data, and mean difference or standard mean difference and 95% CIs for continuous data. RevMan V.5.3 software will be employed for statistical analysis.Discussion This study will summarize current high quality RCTs to appraise the effectiveness and safety of NMES for the treatment of patients with IC. The findings of this study will provide helpful evidence to determine whether NMES is an effective treatment for patients with IC or not. Systematic review registration PROSPERO CRD42020170495.