Effects of Fire Needle Therapy on Knee Osteoarthritis:Meta Analysis / 中国中医药信息杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To evaluate the effectiveness and safety of fire needle therapy for knee osteoarthritis (KOA), and provide reference for clinic and research. Methods Systematic searches were conducted in PubMed, EMBASE, the Cochrane Library, Web of science, CNKI, VIP, CBM and WanFang Data to collect randomized controlled trials (RCTs) on fire needle therapy treating KOA from inception to August 2013. Two reviewers independently screened articles according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria, extracted data and evaluated the quality of the included studies. Then meta-analysis was performed using RevMan5.2. Results A total of 8 RCTs involving 820 patients were included. According to the different measures of control groups, subgroup analyses was performed and meta-analysis results showed that compared with the routine acupuncture group, the fire needle therapy group in clinical cured rate [OR=2.12, 95% CI (1.48, 3.02), P=0.000 1] and markedly effective rate (OR=3.92, 95%CI (2.65, 5.81), P<0.000 01] aspects all have statistical difference. Compared with the warm acupuncture group, the fire needle therapy group in the markedly effective rate [OR=4.12, 95% CI (1.92, 8.87), P=0.000 3] is statistically significant, but there is no statistical difference between the two groups in clinical cured rate [OR=3.09, 95% CI (0.95, 10.05), P =0.06]. Compared with the acupuncture needle (routine acupuncture and warm acupuncture) group, the fire needle therapy group in the visual analogue scale of knee pain [OR=-0.54, 95%CI (-0.85, -0.24), Z=3.46, P=0.000 5] after treatment is statistically difference. The adverse reactions to fire needle treatment of KOA patients have not been reported. Conclusion Current clinical evidence indicates that fire needle therapy is efficient for relieving clinical symptoms of patients with KOA, and improving their quality of life. However, due to lack of enough high-quality studies, fire needle therapy has to be further studied by conducting more strictly-designed, multicenter and large-scale RCTs.