Acupuncture for osteoarthritis of the knee or hip

The Facts:

* A clinical study was performed to investigate whether acupuncture improved long term knee or hip pain associated with osteoarthritis.
* Approximately 700 patients received either standard care alone or 15 sessions of acupuncture over a 3-month period in conjunction with standard care.
* After 3 and 6 months patients who received acupuncture reported a greater improvement in their osteoarthritis than patients who received only standard care. An additional group of approximately 2,900 patients who also received acupuncture reported a similar improvement in their symptoms.

Shaun’s comment: Around a quarter of visits to GPs are for arthritis and so it is clear that we need to find better treatments of we can. The hips and knees are the joints most commonly affected, as they are the major weight-bearing joints of the body. This was a huge study in a major arthritis journal and so its results should be taken seriously. Although we do not know the mechanism, it would appear that acupuncture is worth trying if your hip or knee replacement operation has been cancelled again!

Study reference:

http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/art.22154