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Conclusion: Acupuncture is an effective
treatment for osteoarthritis of the knee. METHODS: A systematic review of randomised controlled trials was performed,
including a meta-analysis which combined the results of trials that used
adequate acupuncture treatment and used WOMAC scores to measure the effect. The
internal validity (quality) and heterogeneity of studies were taken into
account. RESULTS: Thirteen studies were available, of which eight, involving
2362 patients, could be combined. For both reduction of pain and improvement of
function, acupuncture was significantly superior to sham acupuncture (P<0.05 for
all comparisons) in both the short term and the long term. Compared with no
additional intervention (usual care), acupuncture was again significantly
superior for pain and function. The treatment effects were maintained after
taking account of quality and heterogeneity insensitivity analyses. CONCLUSION:
Acupuncture is an effective treatment for osteoarthritis of the knee. Its
overall effect size is 0.8, and it can be considered instead of non-steroidal
anti-inflammatory drugs for patients whose symptoms are not controlled by
education, exercise, weight loss if appropriate and simple analgesics. Further
research is necessary into the most efficient way of delivering acupuncture, and
its longer term benefits. Source PubMed
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