A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Fire Needling Treatment for Knee Osteoarthritis: Focused on Comparative Studies with Manual Acupuncture Treatment during Recent Five Years

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to review the effectiveness of fire needling treatment for knee osteoarthritis in comparison with manual acupuncture treatment. Methods : Through four foreign online databases (PubMed, Cochrane library, EMBASE, and CNKI) and five domestic online databases (NDSL, RISS, KISS, OASIS, and KTKP), we searched for clinical studies that performed fire needling treatment for knee osteoarthritis until May 10, 2019. Only randomized controlled trials were selected and we assessed the risk of bias according to the Cochrane RoB criteria. This review examined the selected studies into first author, publication year, sample size, outcome measurements, results, acupoints, treatment time & period and so on. Results : A total of 7 RCTs were selected in this review and all were conducted in China. Treatment period of more than 4 weeks and treatment visits of 10 to 20 times were the most common. EX-LE4 and ST35 (=EX-LE5) acupoints were most frequently selected in treatment. Among the evaluation indexes, a total efficacy rate was used the most. Most of fire needling groups showed more significant results compared with the manual acupuncture groups statistically. Conclusions : All studies showed that fire needling treatments for knee osteoarthritis were more effective than manual acupuncture treatments statistically. Therefore, the results of this study could be utilized as a preliminary data for another clinical research on fire needling treatment for knee osteoarthritis. However, further well-designed randomized controlled trials will be needed to develop sufficient evidence about the effectiveness and safety of fire needling treatment for knee osteoarthritis in the future.

A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Moxibustion Treatment for Knee Osteoarthritis

“…In traditional Korean medicine (which is a representative conservative treatment), various treatments such as moxibustion, acupuncture, pharmacopuncture, and herbal medicine are used to treat osteoarthritis. In Korea, fire needling treatment of osteoarthritis, and Bee venom treatment of osteoarthritis have been reported [6,7]. However, there are no systematic reviews or meta-analyses of moxibustion treatment of osteoarthritis in Korea.…”

Comparative effectiveness of different acupuncture therapies for neck pain

“…[92,94] While 24 of the 65 included studies reported on the safety of interventions, there was no report of safety related to FA and only 1 study related to ACE, which ranked high in our network meta-analyses. FA is used to treat lateral epicondylitis, [95] knee osteoarthritis, [96] and ankle sprain, [97] and may cause pain, burns, and skin rash due to a red-hot needle. There were few reports of adverse events to the FA in the previous studies, [95][96][97] and Yeon et al [98] reported that after FA, local third-degree burns were observed in the muscle and skin layers without any scarring, and the residual products present after FA did not exert toxicity, but rather increased cell growth.…”

“…FA is used to treat lateral epicondylitis, [95] knee osteoarthritis, [96] and ankle sprain, [97] and may cause pain, burns, and skin rash due to a red-hot needle. There were few reports of adverse events to the FA in the previous studies, [95][96][97] and Yeon et al [98] reported that after FA, local third-degree burns were observed in the muscle and skin layers without any scarring, and the residual products present after FA did not exert toxicity, but rather increased cell growth. ACE has been used for the treatment of musculoskeletal pain, obesity, and facial palsy in Korea, China, and Taiwan.…”