Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is an acute infectious respiratory disease. Ultrashort wave diathermy (USWD) for COVID-19 is recommended by some consensuses on COVID-19 rehabilitation diagnosis and treatment, while it is not mentioned in some other experts consensuses. Because the virus that causes COVID-19 is new and there are few related studies, this paper summarizes the research evidence and possible mechanisms of USWD in the treatment of viral pneumonia, and discusses the factors that need to be considered in the treatment of COVID-19. In this paper, it is suggested that before high-quality research evidence being obtained and under the condition of limited understanding of the pathogenesis and disease development of COVID-19, the application of USWD in COVID-19 should be cautious. To provide scientific and practical research evidence for the treatment of COVID-19 by USWD may be an urgent problem to be solved at present.
An intervention with clinical application must be effective and safe, therefore, when evaluating interventions, the benefit-harm ratio should be considered, and only those interventions with more benefits than harms have application value. To evaluate the benefits and harms of an intervention evidence of both benefits and harms should be reported in clinical trials. To promote better reporting of harms in randomized controlled trials, the CONSORT group had added an entry on harms in the 2001 version of the CONSORT statement, and then in 2004, the CONSORT group developed the CONSORT Harms extension; however, it has not been consistently applied and needs to be updated, the reporting of harms is still inadequate. The CONSORT group has updated《Better reporting of harms in randomized trial: an extension of the CCONSORT statement.》, published《CONSORT Harms 2022 statement, explanation, and elaboration: updated guideline for the reporting of harms in randomized trials》. This article presents and explains the Harms 2022, with the aim of helping researchers better understand and use the statement, with a view to improving the reporting quality of harms in clinical trials.