Efficacy and safety of warm needle treatment for scapulohumeral periarthritis

Background: To evaluate the effectiveness and safety of warm needle acupuncture (WNA) treatment for Scapulohumeral periarthritis. Methods: Relevant randomized controlled trials will be searched from the databases of Pubmed, the Cochrane Library, Embase, CNKI, Wanfang Database, CBM and VIP Database from their inception to September 2021. The primary outcomes are effective rate, visual analog scale score. The secondary outcomes are Constant-Murley score, Japanese Orthopaedic Association scores, adverse events. Two reviewers will independently select studies, collect data, and assess the methodology quality by the Cochrane risk of bias tool. The Stata 14.0 will be used for meta-analysis. Results: This study is ongoing and will be submitted to a peer-reviewed journal for publication. Conclusion: This study will provide an assessment of the current state of WNA for the scapulohumeral periarthritis, aiming to show the efficacy and safety of WNA treatment. Ethics and dissemination: There is no requirement of ethical approval and informed consent, and it will be in print or published by electronic copies. Registration: INPLASY2020100049