Clinical Observation On Treatment Of Osteoarthritis Of Knee Joint With Straw Moxibustion "Nodging Point"

Background:Knee osteoarthritis (KOA) is mainly manifested by pain, stiffness, and movement disorders, is a serious hazard patient quality of life and social productivity chronic degenerative bone and joint diseases. Knee osteoarthritis is a kind of common aliment in older people. With an aging population, changes in diet and an increase in the proportion of obese, the incidence of this disease is increasing year by year. The emphasis is alleviating the clinical symptoms, slowing the progression of the disease, improving the quality of life of patients in clinical treatment. Long term oral administration of western medicine has a larger toxic side effect, surgical treatment is expensive and the safety is low. Acupuncture has the advantages of little toxic side effect, obvious effect, simple operation and so on. It is one of the effective treatment methods in the treatment of knee osteoarthritis. "The knees are the mansion of tendon", the meridian sinew of the foot both pass by and knit knee. These theories are discussed by Miraculous Pivot in detail. The syndromes of the tendons disease of the foot are similar with the main symptoms of KOA, such as pain, stiffness, and movement disorders. KOA and tendons disease are closely related. The Chinese medicine tendons theory is considered as equally important with the theory of channels. Grain sized moxibustion is a part of traditional acupuncture and moxibustion therapy. We combine the two theories, that is to say, use Grain sized moxibustion on the Muscle Meridian Focus, and evaluate the clinical curative effect, enrich therapy for knee osteoarthritis, and find a new and valuable treatment.Objective:To observe the clinical curative effect of Grain sized moxibustion on the Muscle Meridian Focus combined with traditional acupuncture for treatment of Knee Osteoarthritis. For explore the validity, feasibility and superiority of therapeutic schedule.Methods:I has consulted more than 400 articles, selected 86 representative literature. Under the guidance of the teacher, I carried on the literature review and the research on this basic independently.The literature review summarized the traditional Chinese medicine, modern medicine on the understanding and treatment of KOA, as well as the development of the theory of musculature.Thirty patients (sixty knees) were divided into two group, the treatment group (15 patients, 30 knees) and the control group (15 patients,30 knees). The treatment group was treated by Grain sized moxibustion on the Muscle Meridian Focus combined with traditional acupuncture. The control group was treated by acupuncture with traditional acupoints. Patients in both groups were treated for 10 times. Observed and marked the score record with the WOMAC and the Lysholm knee rating standard table before treatment, after the fifth treatment and after the tenth treatment, and assessed the clinical efficacy. All data were analyzed with SPSS 17.0 statistical software.Results:1. In terms of baseline characteristics, there were no significant difference in gender, age, course, BMI, and every scale between two groups (P>0.05).2. The comparison of scale before treatment, after the fifth treatment and after the tenth treatment within each group, showed statistic significance (P<0.05).3. The comparison of the pain index, daily activity difficulty index in the WOMAC between two groups after the fifth treatment and after the tenth treatment showed statistic significance (P<0.05), the comparison of the stiffness index in the WOMAC between two groups after the fifth treatment and after the tenth treatment showed no statistic significance (P>0.05).4. The comparison of Lysholm scores between two groups after the fifth treatment and after the tenth treatment showed no statistic significance (P>0.05).5. After total treatments, in the treatment group,0 cases were cured,9 cases with significant effect,21 cases with effective results,0 cases with ineffective, the total efficiency of 100%. In the control group,0 cases were cured,0 cases with significant effect,21 cases with effective results,9 cases with ineffective, the total efficiency of 70%.Conclusion:1. Two kinds of acupuncture treatment of KOA are effective in terms of clinical therapeutic effect.2. The treatment group is better than the control group in alleviating pain, reducing difficulty of daily activities, and the two groups are similar in relieving stiffness of the patients.3. The two groups are similar in improving the knee ligament injury.4. The grain sized moxibustion with acupuncture therapy can more effectively improve the symptoms and signs of the KOA. It is better than clinical curative effect of acupuncture therapy.