Abstract:

Objective: To evaluate the clinical efficacy of stone needle therapy based on blood stasis theory for different traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) syndrome types of patients with knee osteoarthritis in early and middle stage.

Methods: Totally 36 patients with knee osteoarthritis were enrolled in the orthopaedic ward between March 2016 and December 2017, and diagnosed as qi stagnation and blood stasis syndrome, cold dampness and stasis syndrome, or phlegm and stasis syndrome according to TCM syndrome differentiation. After treatment, stone needle was used for ironing on the different meridian acupoints according to different syndromes. The efficacy of patients with the above three syndromes was respectively evaluated, and the visual analogue scale (VAS) score and western ontario and mcMaster universities arthritis Index (WOMAC) score of the three groups were calculated before treatment, 2 weeks, and 4 weeks after treatment.

Results: The effective rates of the three groups were 86.67%, 81.82%, and 80.00%, respectively. After 2 weeks and 4 weeks of treatment, the VAS and WOMAC scores of the three groups decreased significantly compared to treatment before (P<0.05).

Conclusion: Stone needle therapy for ironing on the acupoints around the knee joint has a good therapeutic effect on knee osteoarthritis of different syndrome types, which is worthy of further application.

Key words: Blood stasis theory, Stone needle, Knee osteoarthritis, Treatment based on syndrome differentiation