RESUMEN
Objective To observe the curative effect of traditional Chinese medicine on the treatment of osteoarthritis of the knee with Tongbi topical ointment combined with joint cavity effusion flushing.Methods 366 patients of osteoarthritis of knee joint with effusion were collected from May 2009 to March 2013 in Hubei University of Medicine Affiliated Taihe Hospital,and randomly recruited into a control group and a treatment group by random number table method,with 188 patients in each group.The control group was treated with the joint cavity drainage and oral taking glucosamine hydrochloride capsules,the treatment group was treated with external application of Tongbi ointment based on the control group.Leukocyte osteoarthritis-1 beta (IL-1β) and hyaluronic acid (HA) were measured before and after the treatment.VAS and WOMAC osteoarthritis index were used to evaluate the effect.Results Compared with indexes before the treatment,IL-1β[(39.29±7.52) pg/ml,(28.33 ± 5.42) pg/ml] decreased significantly,HA content [(1.41 ± 0.23) μg/L,(3.34± 0.48) μg/L] increased significantly,VAS score [before treatment and 1-4weeks were (7.21±0.35),(5.47±0.34),(5.04±0.32),(4.03±0.24),(2.23±0.15)] decreased and the WOMAC index[(56.17±7.31),(46.32±6.34),(37.17± 5.31),(29.04±3.58),(15.21 ±2.37)] improved significantly in the treatment group after 4 weeks of treatment.There was a significant difference between the treatment and the control group showed (P＜0.05).Combined with the total effective rate of 98.9％ (181/183) in treatment group,the control group of 87.4％ (160/183) showed a significant difference (P＜0.01).Conclusion External application of Tongbi ointment combined with joint cavity flushing was effective in the treatment of osteoarthritis of the knee with effusion.