Oral administration of herbal medicines for the treatment of otitis media with effusion: protocol for a systematic review

INTRODUCTION The purpose of this systematic review is to investigate the efficacy of the oral administration of herbal medicines for otitis media with effusion through analysing trial data. METHODS AND ANALYSIS Electronic searches of the following 11 databases will be performed: MEDLINE, CINAHL, EMBASE, AMED, the Cochrane CENTRAL, 3 Chinese databases (CNKI, Wangfang Data and VIP Information) and 5 Korean databases (KoreaMed, Research Information Service System, Korea Studies Information System, Oriental Medicine Advanced Searching Integrated System (OASIS) and DBpia). The selection of the studies, data abstraction and validations will be performed independently by two researchers. DISSEMINATION The systematic review will be published in a peer-reviewed journal. The review will also be disseminated electronically and in print. The review will be updated to inform and guide healthcare practice and policy. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER PROSPERO 2013: CRD42013005430.