Efficacy and safety of Xuanfei Baidu granules for treating COVID-19 A protocol for systematic review and meta-analysis

Background: Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) is currently prevalent in most countries around the world. It has become a common threat to global human health because there is no specific cure and no targeted treatment for this disease at this stage. Xuanfei Baidu granule (XFBD) included the traditional Chinese medicine prescription in COVID-19 diagnosis and treatment Plan (trial eighth Edition) released in August 2020, which has played a great role in the diagnosis and treatment of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China. This paper intends to evaluate the efficacy and safety of Xuanfei Baidu granule in the treatment of COVID-19. Methods: The search strategies of different websites were searched on Cochrane Central controlled Trials Registry, PubMed, excerpt database, Web of science, China National knowledge Infrastructure, Chinese Science and Technology Journal Database, WanFang and other websites. All qualified studies were confirmed to include randomized controlled trials. The search time range was from January 1, 2019 to February 28, 2021. In the meanwhile, the list of references and related reviews was checked. Two evaluators were responsible for the extraction and management of the data independently. The literature quality was evaluated according to Cochrane manual 4.2.2. Heterogeneity test and Meta analysis were carried out by Review Manager V.5.3 software. The bias risk included in the study was evaluated by Cochrane "bias risk" tool, and the relevant statistical data were evaluated by GRADE3.6 evidence quality grading system. Results: This study intends to evaluate the efficacy and safety of XFBD in the treatment of COVID-19 from 4 aspects, including nucleic acid negative conversion time, average hospital stay, clinical symptom improvement rate and lung computed tomography improvement rate. Conclusion: The conclusion of this scheme intends to provide evidence for judging whether the intervention of XFBD on COVID-19 patients is effective or not. PROSPERO registration number: CRD42021245640