Clinical Observation of Radiofrequency Acupotomy in the Treatment of Knee Osteoarthritis with Blood Stasis
WU Si,LI Qing,WANG Wei-min
First Teaching Hospital of Tianjin University of TCM, Tianjin 300381, China
Abstract:
Objective To observe the clinical efficacy of radiofrequency acupotomy in the treatment of knee osteoarthritis with blood stasis and investigate the changes of infrared thermography of joint pain points before and after treatment. Methods 98 patients of blood-stasis knee OA who met the inclusion and exclusion criteria were selected and randomly divided into observation group and control group, with 49 cases in each group. The observation group was treated with radiofrequency acupotomy, which once a week and a total of treatment was 2 times. The control group was treated with acupuncture, which once a day and the continuous treatment lasted 2 weeks. The VAS score, WOMAC score, Lysholm score and infrared absolute temperature and temperature difference values ( △T) of pain points around the knee joints were compared between the two groups before and after treatment. Results The improvement of VAS score, WOMAC score and Lysholm score after treatment in the observation group was better than those in the control group, the difference was statistically significant (P<0.05), the total effective rate of the observation group was 89.79%, which was better than that of the control group (77.55%), with statistical difference (P<0.05). The absolute temperature improvement degree of infrared thermal image of pain point around knee joint was better than that of the control group, and the improvement degree of temperature difference value ( △T) of affected side and healthy side was better than that of the control group, there were statistical differences between the above two items (P<0.05). Conclusion Radiofrequency acupotomy has a good clinical effect in the treatment of knee osteoarthritis with blood stasis. The absolute temperature and temperature difference of joint pain point infrared thermography can be used as the index to evaluate the degree of lesion improvement.
