"Warming-promotion acupuncture" on knee osteoarthritis:a randomized controlled trial

Objective: To observe the clinical efficacy differences between warming-promotion acupuncture, mild reinforcing-reducing acupuncture and acupoint injection for knee osteoarthritis (KOA).

Methods: Ninety cases of KOA were randomly assigned into a warming-promotion acupuncture group (group A), a mild reinforcing-reducing acupuncture group (group B) and a sodium hyaluronate group (group C), 30 cases in each one. Patients in the group A and group B were treated at Xuehai (SP 10), Heding (EX-LE 2), Liangqiu (ST 34), Neixiyan (EX-LE 4), Dubi (ST 35), Xizhong (Extra), Yanglingquan (GB 34), Yinlingquan (SP 9), Zusanli (ST 36), and acupoints could be added or reduced based on syndrome differentiation; warming-promotion acupuncture was applied in the group A and mild reinforcing-reducing method was applied in the group B. Patients in the group C were treated with injection of sodium hyaluronate at any of Neixiyan (EX-LE 4), Dubi (ST 35) or Xizhong (Extra). Treatment was given once a day for group A and group B, and ten days were taken as one course; the injection was given every 5 days, and 2 times were taken as one course. There was an interval of 2 days between courses in the three groups. After three courses, the symptom and sign score and clinical efficacy were observed in the three groups.

Results: Compared with the group B and group C, the symptom and sign score was significantly reduced after treatment in the group A (all P<0.05). The total effective rate was 100.00% (30/30) in the group A, which was superior to 90.00% (27/30) in the group B (P<0.05) and 73.33% (22/30) in the group C (P<0.01).

Conclusions: The clinical efficacy of warming-promotion acupuncture on KOA is obviously superior to the mild reinforcing-reducing acupuncture and injection of sodium hyaluronate, indicating its positive efficacy.