Objective

2

To develop the clinical questions and outcomes of

Clinical Practice Guideline of Fire Needling Therapy for Herpes Zosters

based on

Norms of Formulation and Evaluation for the Clinical Guideline on Acupuncture and Moxibustion

released by World Federation of Acupuncture and Moxibustion Societies.

Methods

2

Combined the investigation with expert consultation and consensus method

and taken clinicians (members) of Chinese Association of Acupuncture and Moxibustion as the subjects

the clinical questions concerned were collected and the two-round consultation was conducted among expert group by letter. In the first round questionnaire

using the voting method

the relevant clinical questions in intervention measures were collected; and in the second round

with the Delphi method adopted

the importance of clinical questions and outcomes in the investigation was scored.

Results

2

A total of 200 structured clinical questions proposed by 153 clinicians and the clinical experience with 13 kinds of combined therapies involved and fire needling as the key measure were collected. The authority coe

fficient (

Cr

) of the Delphi questionnaire was

>

0.70

and the coefficient of variation for the importance scores of alternative clinical questions and outcomes was 0.06-0.26 and 0.12-0.47

respectively. The top 10 clinical questions and 12 outcomes (6 outcomes referred to the patients either in the acute stage or the post-neuralgia stage) were included

with the importance score of clinical questions

>

4

the importance score of outcomes

>

6

and the coefficient of variation ≤0.25.

Conclusion

2

The clinical questions and outcomes of

Clinical Practice Guideline of Fire Needling Therapy for Herpes Zosters

are formulated

which provides the research basis for the recommendation development of the guideline.