• Ting Fang, Qi Li, Fanyuan Zhou, Fushui Liu, Zhongyong Liu, Meimei Zhao, Mei Chen, Jianyu You, Yuli Jin, and Jinmei Xie.
• Department of Acupotomy Chiropractors, The Affiliated Hospital of Jiangxi University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Nanchang 330006, China.
• J Tradit Chin Med. 2020 Jun 1; 40 (3): 355-364.

ObjectiveTo evaluate the clinical efficacy and safety of acupotomy in treatment of knee osteoarthritis (OA).MethodsExtensive literature searches were carried out in PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane Library (Issue 5, 2017), Chinese Biomedical Literature Database, China National Knowledge Infrastructure Database, China Science and Technology Journal Database and Wanfang Database. All databases were retrieved from their inception until May 31, 2017. Randomized controlled trials incorporating acupotomy versus intra-articular sodium hyaluronate for knee osteoarthritis were included. According to Cochrane Reviews' Handbook (5.2), two reviewers screened each article and extracted data independently and were blinded to the findings of each reviewer. Meta-analysis was performed by the Cochrane Collaboration's RevMan 5.3 software.ResultsWe identified 12 studies involving 1150 patients aged between 40 and 78 years old. The pooled analysis indicated that acupotomy showed a significant improvement for short-term effect [cure rate: odds ratio (OR) = 2.04, 95% confidence interval (CI) (1.46, 2.85), P < 0.01; total effective rate: OR = 2.25, 95% CI (1.55, 3.28), P < 0.01; pain score: standard mean difference (SMD) = －1.02; 95% CI (－1.72, －0.31); P = 0.005; Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Questionnaire (WOMAC) score: SMD = －0.74; 95% CI (－1.11, －0.37); P < 0.01]; and also for long-term effect [total effective rate: OR = 2.99, 95%CI (1.88, 4.76), Z = 4.64, P < 0.01; pain score: SMD = －1.68; 95% CI (－2.14, －1.22); P < 0.001; WOMAC score: SMD = －0.91; 95% CI (－1.40, －0.41); P < 0.001]. In addition, there was no obvious difference between acupotomy group and control group in adverse events [OR = 2.13, 95%CI (0.14, 32.28), P = 0.58].ConclusionAcupotomy is a safe and effective treatment for KOA. However, due to the methodological deficiency of the included studies, well-designed randomized controlled trials are required to further confirm the findings.

17 keywords...

hide…