Traditional Chinese Medicine in Gonarthrosis

Abstract

Gonarthrosis is a degenerative joint disease that is typically characterized by the gradual loss of articular cartilage in the knee joint. It is also associated with other changes such as abnormal bone formation, reactive changes in the synovial membrane, and pathologic synovial fluid. Acupuncture and fire needle acupuncture are a traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) techniques that can significantly help in treating of gonarthrosis, particularly in reducing pain and improving physical function. Both acupuncture and fire needle acupuncture have anti-inflammatory effects that can help to alleviate pain and reduce inflammation in the knee joint. In this article is presented a case of 62 year old woman with a main complaint of chronic knee pain due to gonarthrosis. Patient had this problem for more than two years. After 7 treatments, with a combination of acupuncture and fire needle acupuncture once weekly, the patient have reported improvements in self-assessment of pain using the Visual Analog Scale (VAS) score of 2 out of 10. The selected acupuncture points are: ST 35 (Du bi), ST 36 (Zu san li), ST 34 (Liang qiu), SP 10 (Xuehai), GB 34 (Yang ling quan), SP6 (San yin jiao). Fire needling was done on Ashi points i.e. trigger points found on places where the pain is most dominant or where the place is obviously inflamed. In addition to pain relief, the patient also reported an improvement in the physical function.

Keywords: gonarthrosis, traditional Chinese medicine, acupuncture treatment