Comparative efficacy and safety of injection therapies for knee osteoarthritis: A protocol for systematic review and Bayesian network meta analysis.

INTRODUCTION There are many injection methods for the treatment of knee osteoarthritis, but there is no comprehensive comparison, based on the fixed effect model. METHODS According to the retrieval strategy, we searched randomized controlled trials (RCTs) randomly from PubMed, the Cochrane Library, Embase, the China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), Wanfang Database from their inceptions to August 2020, and 2 members of us selected literatures and extracted data independently. Methodological quality was assessed by using the Cochrane bias risk tool, and meta-analysis was performed by using the Stat.14.0. RESULTS This study will evaluate the effectiveness and safety of different injectable drugs for the treatment of knee osteoarthritis and rank the efficacies of drugs, then to determine the optimal treatment. CONCLUSION This study will provide evidence for the choice of injection therapy for knee osteoarthritis. INPLASY REGISTRATION NUMBER INPLASY202080099.