Needle-knife therapy improves the clinical symptoms of knee osteoarthritis by inhibiting the expression of inflammatory cytokines

Knee osteoarthritis (KOA) is a degenerative joint disease that occurs mainly in the elderly population. However, there are currently no effective treatments for treating this condition. In this study, the efficacy of needle-knife therapy, a technique of traditional Chinese medicine that has been widely used to treat KOA was investigated. Patients (n=170) with KOA were randomly divided for needle-knife therapy (treatment group) and acupuncture therapy (control group). Outcome evaluation included stiffness, pain, physiological function, overall changes, total symptom score, clinical curative effects and the concentrations of interleukin (IL)-1β, IL-6 and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) in the synovial fluid. The trial was completed in 151 patients (233 knees) from a total of 170 patients (264 knees); the treatment group comprised 76 patients (117 knees) who completed the trial and 9 patients (14 knees) who were removed from the study, and the control group comprised 75 patients (116 knees) who completed the trial and 10 patients (17 knees) who were removed from the study. The symptom scores of KOA in stages I–IV were reduced significantly in the treatment group and those of stages I–III were decreased significantly in the control group. The effective rate of the KOA therapy in the patients of stages III and IV in the treatment group was significantly higher than that in the control group. After treatment, the decrements of IL-1β, IL-6 and TNF-α in the treatment group were greater than those in the control group. These results showed that the use of needle-knife therapy to treat KOA effectively improved the clinical symptoms by inhibiting the expression of inflammatory cytokines.