Abstract

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy and safety of pharmacopuncture and bee venom acupuncture for knee osteoarthritis. Methods: We searched for randomized controlled trials that investigated the effects of pharmacopuncture and bee venom acupuncture on knee osteoarthritis through the electronic databases including Pubmed, EMBASE, Cochrane, CiNii, CNKI, KMBASE, KISS, NDSL, and OASIS. Meta-analysis was performed by Review Manager software and the quality of included studies were assessed by the Cochrane risk of bias tool. Results: A total of 20 articles with 1536 participants were identified. 12 trials about phamacopuncture and 8 trials about bee venom acupuncture showed significant improvement than sham treatment, western medicine treatment, and other Korean medicine treatment such as acupuncture in diverse scales. Six trials reported adverse events. Conclusions: These findings showed certain efficacy and safety of pharmacopuncture and bee venom acupuncture. It would be helpful for patients and Korean medicine doctors in the choice of the treatment for knee osteoarthritis. Well-designed studies with long term follow up and more number of participants should be conducted to strengthen the evidence of the use of pharmacopuncture and bee venom acupuncture.