Clinic Study On The Treatment Of Warm Acupuncture For The Knee Osteoarthritis Due To Wind, Cold, Dampness And Obstruction

Objective:To observe the clinical efficacy of the treatment of warm acupuncture for the knee osteoarthritis due to wind, cold, dampness and obstruction.Methods:Firstly, according to the matched criteria, divide 60 patients randomly into treatment group and control group,30 ones per group:the treatment group will be treated with warm acupuncture treatment for 30 minutes a time, once a day,15 times a course of treatment, two courses in total with 5 days between these two courses; the control group will be treated by injecting Sofastin into the suffered knee joint cavity, once a week,5 times a course in total without any gap. Then, evaluate the symptom scores and interleukin-6 (IL-6), tumor necrosis factor-a (TNF-a) content of these two groups respectively, compare their statistics and calculate their integral efficacy the day before the first treatment and in the next morning after completion of all courses.Results:(1) Clinical symptom score:before and after treatment, two P values are below 0.05, indicating that these two kinds of treatments can be significantly decrease the clinical symptom score; There is a significant difference (P<0.05) between these two groups, showing that the treatment group in reducing the clinical symptom score is better than the control group.(2) Clinical efficacy:the efficacy of the treatment group is 91.43% while efficacy of the control group is 87.88%; another significant difference (P<0.05) between these two groups shows that the total effective rate in treatment group is superior to that of the control group.(3) Correlation analysis of IL-6, TNF-a levels and clinical symptom score:IL-6, TNF-a levels in patients'synovial fluid and their clinical symptom scores show a positive linear correlation (P values<0.05).(4) IL-6 levels:before and after treatment, two P values are below 0.05, indicating that these two kinds of treatment can make IL-6 in synovial fluid significantly reduce; There is a significant difference (P<0.05) between these groups, indicating that the treatment group is superior to the control group in decreasing IL-6 levels.(5) TNF-a levels:before and after treatment, two P values are below 0.05, indicating that the two treatment can significantly decrease TNF-a in joint fluid; There is a significant difference (P <0.05) between these two groups, indicating that the treatment group is superior to the control group in decreasing TNF-a levels.Conclusion:(1) A significant difference exists between the total effective rates of warm acupuncture and of the intra-articular injection of Sofastin to treat the knee osteoarthritis in the level II caused by wind, cold, dampness and obstruction, the clinical efficacy of warm acupuncture is superior to that of intra-articular injection of Sofastin.(2) Both warm acupuncture and the intra-articular injection of Sofastin can reduce clinical symptom score of knee osteoarthritis in the level II caused by wind, cold, dampness and obstruction, but the efficacy of warm acupuncture to decreasethe symptom score is superior to that of intra-articular injection of Sofastin.(3) The clinical symptom score of knee osteoarthritis is positively related to the levels of IL-6 and TNF-a in the joint synovial fluid and thus it can be used as one of the indicators of clinical observations.(4) Both warm acupuncture and the intra-articular injection of Sofastin can reduce the levels of IL-6 and TNF-a in the joint synovial fluid of patients with knee osteoarthritis, but the efficacy of warm acupuncture to reduce the levels of IL-6 and TNF-a is superior to that of the intra-articular injection of Sofastin.