Efficacy and safety of the combination of modern medicine and traditional Chinese medicine in pulmonary fibrosis caused by novel coronavirus disease A protocol for Bayesian network meta-analysis

Background: Novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is a kind of pulmonary inflammation induced by New Coronavirus. It seriously threatens people's health and safety. Clinical studies have found that some patients have different degrees of inflammation after discharge from hospital, especially in patients with severe inflammatory lung fibrosis. Early combination of Chinese medicine and modern medicine has important clinical significance. There are still many deficiencies in the current research. We studied the effectiveness of the combination of traditional Chinese medicine and modern medicine in the treatment of pulmonary fibrosis caused by COVID-19, and proposed a network meta-analysis (NMA) scheme. Methods: According to the search strategy, we will search Chinese and English databases to collect all randomized controlled trials of traditional Chinese medicine combined with modern drugs or only using traditional Chinese medicine for new coronavirus-19-induced pulmonary fibrosis between December 1, 2019 and November 15, 2021. First, the literature was screened according to the eligibility criteria, endnotex9 was used to manage the literature, and the Cochrane Collaboration's tool was used to assess the quality of the included literature. Revman 5.3, Stata 14.2, and gemtc14.3 meta-analysis software was then used for data processing and analysis, and the grading of recommendations assessment will be used to develop and evaluate a hierarchy for classifying the quality of evidence for NMA. Results: Through the analysis, the ranking of efficacy and safety of various treatments for pulmonary fibrosis caused by COVID-19 will be drawn, thus providing stronger evidence support for the choice of clinical treatment methods. Conclusion: Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) combined with modern drugs has played a positive role in the treatment of pulmonary fibrosis caused by COVID-19, and this study may provide more references for the clinical medication of pulmonary fibrosis caused by COVID-19. INPLASY registration number: INPLASY2021110061.