• Han Yang, Rufei Zhang, Jun Zhou, Ying Cheng, Juan Li, Qiwei Xiao, Zihan Yin, Guixing Xu, Ling Zhao, and Fanrong Liang.
• College of Acupuncture and Moxibustion and Tuina, Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine.
• Medicine (Baltimore). 2019 Nov 1; 98 (44): e17561e17561.

BackgroundPersistent and intractable hiccups bring serious inconvenience to patients' work and daily life, and impair their quality of life. Relevant studies showed that acupuncture therapy might be effective in treating persistent and intractable hiccups. However, there is no consistent conclusion so far. The aim of our research is to investigate the safeties and effectiveness of acupuncture in treating patients with persistent and intractable hiccups.MethodsWe will search randomized controlled trials (RCTs) using acupuncture therapy to treat persistent and intractable hiccups in the following 6 English electronic databases and 3 Chinese electronic databases: MEDLINE, EMBASE, the Cochrane Library, Web of Science, PsycINFO, Allied and Alternative Medicine (AMED), Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), Chinese Scientific Journals Database (VIP) and Wanfang data. The cure rate and the total effective rate will be considered as the primary outcomes. Complete cessation within a given period post-treatment of hiccups, changes in frequency or intensity of hiccups, concomitant symptom score, and adverse events will be considered as secondary outcomes. We will use Endnote software 9.1 for studies selection, Review Manager software 5.3, and STATA 13.0 software for analysis and synthesis.Resultswe will synthesize current studies to evaluate the the safeties and effectiveness of acupuncture for persistent and intractable hiccups.ConclusionOur study will provide evidence of acupuncture therapy for persistent and intractable hiccups.

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