Alternative in Chronic Pain Management

Pain Management with Acupuncture in

Osteoarthritis: a Systemati Review and
meta-analysis

Robert
PAIN

Pain can be broadly divided into three classes.

1. Nociceptive Pain
2. Inflamatory Pain
3. Pathological Pain
Pain in Osteoarthritis
• Osteoarthritis (OA) has long been considered a “wear and tear”
disease leading to loss of cartilage. OA used to be considered the
sole consequence of any process leading to increased pressure
on one particular joint or fragility of cartilage matrix.
• The discovery that many soluble mediators such as cytokines or
prostaglandins can increase the production of matrix
metalloproteinases by chondrocytes led to the first steps of an
“inflammatory” theory.
• Low-grade inflammation induced by the metabolic syndrome,
innate immunity and inflammaging are some of the more recent
arguments in favor of the inflammatory theory of OA.
 Pain Management with Acupuncture in
Osteoarthritis: a Systemati Review and meta-
analysis
Manyanga, T., Froese, M., Zarychansku, R., Abou-Setta, A., Friesen, C.,
BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine
2014, 9 pages
doi:10.1186/1472-6882-14-312
Background
• The utility of acupuncture in managing osteoarthritis
symptoms is uncertain. Trial results are conflicting and
previous systematic reviews may have overestimated the
benefits of acupuncture.
Method

• Two reviewers independently identified randomized

controlled trials (up to May 2014) from multiple electronic
sources (including PubMed/Medline, EMBASE, and
CENTRAL) and reference lists of relevant articles, extracted
data and assessed risk of bias (Cochrane’s Risk of Bias
tool). Pooled data are expressed as mean differences (MD),
with 95% confidence intervals (CI) (random-effects model).
 Measurement Tools

• Pain intensity was measured using the visual Analogue

scale.
• To assess functional mobility, the Western Ontario and
McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index (WOMAC) scale
was used. This scale rates activities according to degree of
difficulty (0 = none and 4 = extreme difficult).
• Other trials used the Knee injury and Osteoarthritis
Outcome Score (KOOS) with five categories (0 = none and 5
= extreme) difficulty).
Study Flow Diagram
Result
• We included 12 trials (1763 participants) comparing acupuncture to
sham acupuncture, no treatment or usual care. We adjudicated most
trials to be unclear (64%) or high (9%) risk of bias.
• Acupuncture use was associated with:
I. Significant reductions in pain intensity (MD -0.29, 95% CI -0.55 to -
0.02, I2 0%, 10 trials, 1699 participants)
II. Improvement in Functional mobility (standardized MD -0.34, 95% CI
-0.55 to -0.14, I2 70%, 9 trials, 1543 participants)
III. Improvement in Health-related quality of life (standardized MD -
0.36, 95% CI -0.58 to -0.14, I2 50%, 3 trials, 958 participants).
IV. Subgroup analysis of pain intensity by intervention duration
suggested greater pain intensity reduction with intervention
periods greater than 4 weeks (MD -0.38, 95% CI -0.69 to -0.06, I2
0%, 6 trials, 1239 participants).
Visual Analog Scale
Functional Mobility
Health-related quality of life
Conclusion
• The use of acupuncture is associated with significant
reductions in pain intensity, improvement in functional
mobility and quality of life. While the differences are not as
great as shown by other reviews, current evidence supports
the use of acupuncture as an alternative for traditional
analgesics in patients with osteoarthritis.
Reference
Woolf, C. J. (2010). What is this thing called pain? Journal of Clinical
Investigation, 120(11), 3742–3744. doi:10.1172/jci45178
Manyanga, T., Froese, M., Zarychanski, R., Abou-Setta, A., Friesen, C.,
Tennenhouse, M., & Shay, B. L. (2014). Pain management with
acupuncture in osteoarthritis: a systematic review and meta-
analysis. BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine, 14(1).
doi:10.1186/1472-6882-14-312
Berenbaum, F. (2013). Osteoarthritis as an inflammatory disease
(osteoarthritis is not osteoarthrosis!). Osteoarthritis and Cartilage,
21(1), 16–21. doi:10.1016/j.joca.2012.11.012
THANK YOU