• Liu Wu, Qiang Yuan, Yongbing Kuang, Yong Chen, Jin Li, Yinhao Feng, and Jian Luo.
• Department of Tuina, Hospital of Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Chengdu, Sichuan Province, P. R. China.
• Medicine (Baltimore). 2020 Sep 25; 99 (39): e22316e22316.

BackgroundThere is a worldwide outbreak of COVID-19, as the number of patients increases. External treatment of traditional Chinese medicine includes acupuncture, massage, fire needle, cupping, and other alternative therapies. Currently, there are no relevant articles for systematic review.MethodsWe will search the randomized controlled trials related to the external treatment of traditional Chinese medicine (such as, acupuncture, massage, etc) and COVID-19 from inception to June 2020. The following database is our focus area: the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), PubMed, EMBASE, Web of Science, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, Chinese Biomedical Literature Database, and Wan-Fang Database. All published randomized controlled trials in English or Chinese related to massage for COVID-19 will be included. Primary outcomes include the influence of external treatment of traditional Chinese medicine on the patients with COVID-19. Secondary outcomes include accompanying symptoms (such as myalgia, expectoration, stuffiness, runny nose, pharyngalgia, anhelation, chest distress, dyspnea, crackles, headache, nausea, vomiting, anorexia, diarrhea) disappear rate, negative COVID-19 results rate on 2 consecutive occasions (not on the same day), average hospitalization time, Clinical curative effect, and improved quality of life.ResultsThe results will provide a high-quality synthesis of current evidence for researchers in this subject area.ConclusionThe conclusion of our study will provide evidence to judge whether external treatment of traditional Chinese medicine is an effective intervention on the patients with COVID-19.Prospero Registration NumberCRD42020181336.

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