Acupuncture as Adjunctive Therapy in Osteoarthritis of the Knee

A clinical trial (Berman et al., 2004) examining the effects of acupuncture for reducing pain and dysfunction in 570 patients with osteoarthritis of the knee found that patients treated with acupuncture 23 times over 26 weeks (8 weeks of 2 treatments per week followed by 2 weeks of 1 treatment per week, 4 weeks of 1 treatment every other week, and 12 weeks of 1 treatment per month) experienced significant improvements in pain and function of the knee.

For Practitioners:

Points Needled: 5 local points- GB34, SP9, ST35, ST36, and Xi Yan. 4 distal points- BL60, GB39, SP6, and KD3.

E-Stim: Xi Yan, at low frequency (8 Hz), and square biphasic pulses (0.5-ms pulse width) for 20 minutes.

Citation:

Berman, B. M., Lao, L., Langenberg, P., Lee, W. L., Gilpin, A. M., & Hochberg, M. C. (2004). Effectiveness of acupuncture as adjunctive therapy in osteoarthritis of the knee: a randomized, controlled trial.Annals of internal medicine,141(12), 901–910.