Mechanism of Traditional Chinese Medicine in Treating Knee Osteoarthritis

Overview

Journal J Pain Res

Publisher Dove Medical Press

Date 2020 Jul 2

PMID 32606908

Citations 37

Authors

Mina Wang

Lu Liu

Claire Shuiqing Zhang

Zehuan Liao

Xianghong Jing

Marc Fishers

Luopeng Zhao

Xiaobai Xu

Bin Li

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Knee osteoarthritis (KOA) is a degenerative disease, making a unique contribution to chronic pain, edema, and limited mobility of knee joint. Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) is a common complementary therapy for KOA and has been found effective. The aim of this review is to consolidate the current knowledge about the mechanism of four interventions of TCM: acupuncture, moxibustion, herbs, and massage in treating KOA, and how they alleviate symptoms such as pain, swelling, and dysfunction. Furthermore, this review highlights that four therapies have different mechanisms but all of them can manage KOA through inhibiting inflammation, which indicates that alternative therapies should be considered as a viable complementary treatment for pain management in clinical practice.

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