BMJ  2007;335:786 (20 October), doi:10.1136/bmj.39343.501863.80 (published 20 September 2007)

Editorials

Management of chronic knee pain

Acupuncture has no additional benefit in people taking a course of exercise

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Two papers have recently been published on bmj.com on the treatment of osteoarthritis of the knee.^{1 2} The first is a randomised trial of adding acupuncture to a course of advice and exercise delivered by physiotherapists¹; the second, which is also published in this week's BMJ, is a systematic review of the effectiveness of physiotherapy after elective total knee arthroplasty in people with osteoarthritis.²

Clinical trials conducted over the past decade have helped to define the role of acupuncture in various clinical conditions. A particular focus of these trials has been the use of acupuncture for chronic knee pain or osteoarthritis of the knee.³

The findings of randomised trials of acupuncture have caused much debate. Positive trials have been criticised because of inadequate blinding. Negative trials have been criticised because the intervention was not administered by properly trained practitioners or because control interventions may have had analgesic effects. However, . . . [Full text of this article]

¹ Centre for Evidence-Based Physiotherapy, University of Sydney, NSW 2141, Australia , ² George Institute for International Health, Sydney, NSW 2000, Australia

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The data presented means your conclusions are unsafe

Mike Cummings
bmj.com, 21 Oct 2007 [Full text]

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