Acupuncture or electroacupuncture combined with usual care is more effective than usual care alone for the treatment of knee osteoarthritis.

PMID: 

J Tradit Chin Med. 2019 Feb ;39(1):103-110. PMID: 32186030

Abstract Title: 

Effect of acupuncture therapies combined with usual medical care on knee osteoarthritis.

Abstract: 

OBJECTIVE: To observe the effect of acupuncture or electroacupuncture (EA) combined with usual medical care for treating knee osteoarthritis (KOA) .METHODS: A total of 90 patients with KOA were randomly allocated to 3 groups: usual care group (UC group, n = 30) was treated by pharmacological treatment of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) and drugs for activating blood circulation (Ds-ABC), acupuncture (AP) combined with usual care group (UC group) (AP + UC group, n = 30) and EA combined with UC group (EA + UC group, n = 30). The primary outcome measurements included pain visual analogue scale/score (VAS), Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index (WOMAC Index) and its subscales. Secondary outcome measurement was Assessment of Quality of Life instrument version of the 36-item Short Form Health Survey (AQoL-SF36).RESULTS: By the end of the 1st week, AP + UC group and EA + UC group exhibited statistically significant improvements in primary outcome measures, except for WOMAC stiffness, compared with the UC group (P

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