Which respiratory assistance techniques are effective in improving lung function in neuromuscular patients? Protocol for systematic review with meta-analysis

Neuromuscular diseases (NMDs) cause progressive respiratory muscle weakness, resulting in respiratory complications, functional decline, and reduced quality of life. To carry out a literature review in databases through randomized clinical trials, seeking to establish which respiratory assistance techniques are effective in improving lung function in individuals with neuromuscular diseases. The search was carried out in the CINAHL, Cochrane Library, Embase (via Ovid), PubMed, PEDro and Web of Science databases, seeking to capture as much data as possible to be integrated into the systematic review. Only randomized and controlled clinical trials that investigated the effectiveness of respiratory assistance techniques, except the application of invasive mechanical ventilation for respiratory failure, on lung function in individuals of both sexes with a clinical diagnosis of neuromuscular diseases will be included. The reviewers will extract the data independently and later another reviewer will confirm the data captured to avoid any typing errors or other errors. The data will be exported to an Excel Spreadsheet. The authors will create tables to present the selected studies, so that the clinician reading this review can find such studies in a summarized way. In addition, a meta-analysis will be carried out with the values found in the studies. The results will provide a greater understanding of the effects of respiratory assistance techniques and will allow the conclusion of which method has proven to be most effective. PROSPERO CRD42024526012.