Investigating the efficacy of acupoint acupuncture combined with rehabilitation training in knee osteoarthritis treatment: A prospective comparative study informed by systematic acupoint analysis

Abstract

Objectives: This study aims to investigate the clinical effect of acupuncture combined with rehabilitation training in the treatment of knee osteoarthritis (KOA) under unified acupoint intervention.

Patients and methods: In this prospective, comparative study informed by systematic acupoint analysis, the literature related to acupuncture for KOA treatment was retrieved from public databases and the core acupoints were analyzed using the Traditional Chinese Medicine Inheritance Calculation System (TCMICS) software. Eighty-four patients were selected as the participants, and the clinical effect (total efficacy rate), Numeric Rating Scale (NRS) for pain score, American Knee Society Score (AKSS) for knee joint function and the self-care ability score for daily living activities were used to evaluate the treatment effect. The curative effect index was calculated using the AKSS scores.

Results: After analyzing the core acupoints, we selected the Dubi, Zusanli, Yanglingquan, Xuehai, Neixiyan and Liang Qiu acupoints for the acupuncture treatment. The patients were divided into a control group (n = 42 patients undergoing rehabilitation training) and an intervention group (n = 42 patients undergoing acupuncture combined with rehabilitation training). The control group consisted of 15 male and 27 female, with a mean age of 62.90±11.531 (range, 40 to 78) years. The mean course of the disease was 4.07±1.841 years. The intervention group consisted of 16 male and 26 female, with a mean age of 63.95±10.613 (range, 41 to 79) years and a mean disease course of 4.76±2.328 years. There was no significant difference between the groups before treatment (p > 0.05). After acupuncture treatment, the 92.85% total efficacy rate (n = 39) was significantly higher than the 73.80% (n = 31) in the control group. The mean AKSS of the control and intervention groups were 64.17±11.148 and 66.67±17.795, respectively, and the mean knee joint articulation scores were 57.40±8.925 and 54.10±10.150 in the two groups, respectively. Following treatment, the scores of knee joint function and knee joint articulation in the intervention group were higher than those in the control group (p < 0.05). For AKSS, the mean difference of the control group was 6.030, and the proportion of patients who reached the improvement of minimum clinically significant difference (MCID) standard was 80.95%. The mean difference of the intervention group was 10.98, and the proportion of patients who reached MCID was 100%. Following treatment, the self-care ability score in the intervention group were higher than those in the control group (p < 0.05). For modified Barthel Index (MBI), the mean difference of the control group and intervention group were 6.446 and 6.225, all accounting for 100%. The mean NRS scores were significantly decreased from 5.19±1.042 to 1.93±0.640 after one month of acupuncture treatment.

Conclusion: Our study results suggest that acupuncture combined with rehabilitation training based on data mining can relieve patients’ pain, accelerate the recovery of their knee joint function and improve their daily living ability, demonstrating high clinical value in practice.

Citation: Li Y, Yu JB, Liu Y, Zhu L, Zhang YF, Jin M, et al. Investigating the efficacy of acupoint acupuncture combined with rehabilitation training in knee osteoarthritis treatment: A prospective comparative study informed by systematic acupoint analysis. Jt Dis Relat Surg 2026;37(x):i-xii. doi: 10.52312/ jdrs.2026.2205.