Management strategies for Janu Sandhigata Vata vis-a-vis osteoartheritis of knee: A narrative review

INTRODUCTION: Ayurveda has described about the pathogenesis and the treatment of various disorders, the incidence of some of which have increased in the present scenario. Janu Sandhigata Vata correlated with osteoarthritis (OA) of the knee joint is one such chronic, degenerative, inflammatory disease which has a great impact on the quality of the life of an individual. Different modalities of treatment have been explained in the classics to tackle the condition effectively. METHODOLOGY: In the present study, an attempt has been made to review the various clinical research works done in the management of OA of the knee, which are registered in various research portal. In AYUSH Research Portal using the keywords Ayurveda-clinical research-musculoskeletal disorders-osteoarthrosis of knee-Janu Sandhigata Vata and in PubMed using clinical research – Ayurveda-OA. The studies reviewed were categorized depending on the treatment used in the management of the condition. RESULTS: Fifty three research works were registered under AYUSH Research Portal with 34 full papers. There were 12 research papers in PubMed, out of which 6 papers which dealt with OA of the knee were reviewed. Among these six, three already existed in AYUSH Research Portal. The results were discussed by categorizing the studies as per the treatment used. CONCLUSION: Among the papers reviewed, most of them dealt with few modalities of treatment rather than the complete classical line of the treatment. The evidence-based research involving multimodality treatment with long-term follow-up covering various aspects of prevention and cure has to be conducted which is the need of the hour.