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Updated: Jun 16, 2026

Fu's Subcutaneous Needling for Knee Osteoarthritis Pain
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Fu's Subcutaneous Needling for Knee Osteoarthritis Pain

Published on: March 24, 2023

Acupuncture for peripheral joint osteoarthritis.

Eric Manheimer1, Ke Cheng, Klaus Linde

  • 1Center for Integrative Medicine, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Kernan Hospital Mansion, 2200 Kernan Drive, Baltimore, Maryland, USA, 21207-6697. emanheimer@compmed.umm.edu

The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews
|January 22, 2010
PubMed
Summary

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Acupuncture shows statistically significant short-term pain and function improvements for osteoarthritis, but benefits are small and may be due to placebo effects. Waiting list controls suggest clinically relevant benefits, potentially from expectation.

Area of Science:

  • Integrative Medicine
  • Rheumatology
  • Pain Management

Background:

  • Peripheral joint osteoarthritis is a leading cause of pain and functional limitation.
  • Effective and safe treatment options for osteoarthritis are limited.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To evaluate the efficacy of acupuncture in managing peripheral joint osteoarthritis.

Main Methods:

  • Systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials (RCTs).
  • Searched Cochrane Central Register, MEDLINE, and EMBASE databases.
  • Included RCTs comparing acupuncture to sham, active treatments, or waiting list controls for knee, hip, or hand osteoarthritis.

Main Results:

  • Sixteen trials (3498 participants) were analyzed.

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Last Updated: Jun 16, 2026

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Preliminary Study on Acupuncture Combined with Grain-sized Moxibustion for Treating Rheumatoid Arthritis with Finger Joint Pain
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  • Acupuncture demonstrated statistically significant short-term improvements in pain and function compared to sham controls, but these did not meet clinical relevance thresholds.
  • Comparisons with waiting list controls and specific active treatments (e.g., supervised education) indicated clinically relevant benefits, potentially influenced by placebo or expectation effects.

    • Conclusions:

    • Sham-controlled trials suggest statistically significant but clinically small benefits, likely partly due to placebo effects from inadequate blinding.
    • Waiting list-controlled trials indicate statistically significant and clinically relevant improvements, with expectation effects playing a role.
    • Further research is needed to clarify the true clinical benefit and mechanisms of acupuncture for osteoarthritis.