Table 4 Characteristics of included trials of manual acupuncture for pain relief in patients with knee osteoarthritis
First author, publication year | Type | No of patients on active therapy (n = 409) | Method quality | Treat-ment period (weeks) | Mean baseline pain (mm VAS) | Best mean difference (95% CI) of change over placebo (mm VAS) | Outcome assessment timepoints (weeks, best time point used in bold) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Berman-04 | TCM with "de Qi" | 169 | 4 | 12 | 44.5 | 1.2 (-2.5 to 4.9) | 4, 8 |
Molsberger-94 | TCM with "de Qi | 71 | 4 | 5 | 46.8 | 10.6 (0.1 to 21.3) | 5 |
Takeda-94 | TCM with "de Qi" | 20 | 3 | 4 | 56.0 | 2.0 (-7.5 to 11.9) | 4 |
Witt-05 | TCM with "de Qi" | 149 | 4 | 8 | 64.9 | 7.1 (0.2 to 14.4) | 8 |
8 weeks | 318 | 3.6 (0.2 to 7.1) | |||||
Total | 409 | 3.8* | 54.7† | 1.3 † (-2.7 to 4.7) | 4 |