Acupuncture for Knee Pain

2015-04-15 08:29:30

Acupuncture has been used to treat knee pain, but there is still some debate on its efficacy. A randomized clinical trial was recently published to determine the efficacy of laser and needle acupuncture (1). There were 282 volunteers over the age of 50 with chronic knee pain. They received either no acupuncture, acupuncture, laser, or sham laser. Treatments were delivered for 12 weeks. The results of the trial showed that neither needle nor laser acupuncture significantly improved pain or function, compared with sham at 12 weeks. Needle acupuncture resulted in modest improvement in pain and in function at 12 weeks compared to control, but was not significantly different than sham, and was not maintained at 1 year. The authors conclude that neither laser nor needle acupuncture conferred benefit over sham for pain or function.