Stroke is the leading cause of mortality and disability in China. Chinese medicine integrated with conventional medicine is current widely used in the prevention and treatment of stroke. A clinical practice guideline for application of integrative medicine in stroke was urgently required. This guideline was developed according to the World Health Organisation Handbook for Guideline Development and the Guideline Development Handbook for Diagnosis and Therapy of Integrative Medicine. The systematic reviews were conducted following the Cochrane handbook. The quality of evidence and strength of recommendations were evaluated using the GRADE approach. The reporting of guideline followed the RIGHT statement. A multi-disciplinary working team was established. Eleven research questions from 15 clinical questions were identified by questionnaire surveys, face-to-face meetings, and analysis by the working team. Fourteen recommendations regarding integrative medicine for ischaemic stroke, haemorrhagic stroke, and complications of stroke were formulated from systematic reviews of the benefits, harms, cost-effectiveness, quality of evidence, the values and preferences of patients and their family members, feedback on proposed recommendations from medical practitioners from a variety of disciplines, and a face-to-face consensus meeting. This guideline focuses on clinical treatments that are specific to integrative medicine for stroke and can be used by medical practitioners at all levels in medical institutions and rehabilitation facilities.
Lumbar disc herniation (LDH) is one of the most important causes of back and leg pain, which seriously affects the quality of life of patients. As the first-line treatment for LDH, non-operative treatment can relieve 80% to 90% of symptoms among the patients with LDH. This guideline followed Guidelines for the Formulation/Revision of Clinical Treatment Guidelines in China (2022 edition) and WHO handbook for guideline development (2014 edition) to set up guideline working group. This guideline identified fourteen clinical questions through the literature review and clinical experts’ consensus. We drafted the recommendations after systematically searching and evaluating the evidence; delphi method was adopted for expert consensus on the preliminary recommendations, finally, 19 recommendations were made to guide non-operative treatments for LDH. This guideline can provide guidance for the clinical practice of Chinese and western orthopedics practitioners.