After 8 weeks of treatment, pain and joint function are improved more with acupuncture than with minimal acupuncture or no acupuncture in patients with osteoarthritis of the knee. However, this benefit decreases over time.
“After 8 weeks, patients in the acupuncture group had greater improvement in function, but not pain, compared with patients in the sham acupuncture group. Among patients who remained in the study, those in the acupuncture group had greater improvements in both pain and function after 26 weeks compared with the other groups.”
“Acupuncture plus diclofenac is more effective than placebo acupuncture plus diclofenac for the symptomatic treatment of osteoarthritis of the knee.” Free Full Text article at link
“We conclude that manual and electroacupuncture causes a significant improvement in the symptoms of osteoarthritis of the knee, either on its own or as an adjunct therapy, with no loss of benefit after one month.”
“Both EA and TENS treatments were effective in reducing OA-induced knee pain. EA had the additional advantage of enhancing the TUGT results as opposed to TENS treatment or no treatment, which did not produce such corollary effect.”
