ReviewInternational journal of general medicine2021
Acupuncture for the Treatment of Knee Osteoarthritis: An Overview of Systematic Reviews.
Review in International journal of general medicine, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 17 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
17 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 33 citations in OpenAlex.
- A critical overview of systematic reviews and meta-analyses of intra-articular injection of platelet rich plasma versus hyaluronic acid for knee osteoarthritis.Clinical rheumatology · 2025Pooled it
- Warm needle acupuncture for osteoarthritis: An overview of systematic reviews and meta-analysis.Frontiers in medicine · 2023Pooled it
- Predictive Value of the Systemic Immune-Inflammation Index for the Clinical Efficacy of Acupuncture and Exercise Rehabilitation in Knee Osteoarthritis: A Retrospective Study.Immunity, inflammation and disease · 2026Observational
- Electroacupuncture alleviates osteoarthritis and is associated with activation of the Nrf2/HO-1 pathway and reduced ferroptosis-related changes.Frontiers in molecular biosciences · 2026Article
- Identification of potential biomarkers related to the Bitong mixture in osteoarthritis based on bioinformatics and network pharmacology, and exploration of the mechanism involved.Frontiers in immunology · 2026Article
- Therapeutic potential of SOX family transcription factors in osteoarthritis.Annals of medicine · 2025Review
- Effect of Western and Korean Medicine Combination Treatment on Physical Activity in Elderly Arthropathy Patients.Journal of pharmacopuncture · 2025Article
- Effect of electroacupuncture combined with Tuina therapy on gut microbiota in patients with knee osteoarthritis.World journal of gastroenterology · 2025Article
- Acupuncture Modalities Differentially Modulate Pain and Joint Damage in a Rat Model of Knee Osteoarthritis.Journal of pain research · 2025Article
- The effects of needle and warm needle on hemodynamic responses at different acupoints in patients with knee osteoarthritis.Frontiers in bioengineering and biotechnology · 2025Article
- Complementary, alternative, and integrative medicine therapies for knee osteoarthritis: a visual analytics analysis of the research domain.Frontiers in medicine · 2025Article
- Electro-acupuncture modulated miR-214 expression to prevent chondrocyte apoptosis and reduce pain by targeting BAX and TRPV4 in osteoarthritis rats.Brazilian journal of medical and biological research = Revista brasileira de pesquisas medicas e biologica · 2024Article
- Effect of acupuncture for patients with knee osteoarthritis: study protocol for a double-dummy randomized controlled trial.Journal of orthopaedic surgery and research · 2023Article
- Guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of knee osteoarthritis with integrative medicine based on traditional Chinese medicine.Frontiers in medicine · 2023Review
- Article
- Effect of Acupuncture on the Cognitive Control Network of Patients with Knee Osteoarthritis: Study Protocol for a Randomized Controlled Trial.Journal of pain research · 2022Article
- Effect of Moxibustion Instrument Combined with Intermediate Frequency Electrostatic Therapy on Pain and Joint Function in Elderly Patients with Cold-Dampness Knee Arthritis.Computational and mathematical methods in medicine · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
9 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundAcupuncture has been widely used in the clinical management of osteoarthritis of the knee (KOA). Many systematic reviews (SRs) and meta-analyses (MAs) have reported its effectiveness in relieving pain. This overview aimed to summarize SRs and MAs on the effectiveness and safety of acupuncture for KOA and evaluate their methodological and evidence quality of the included SRs and MAs.
methodsWe conducted a comprehensive literature search for SRs and MAs in four Chinese and four international databases from their inception until August 2021. Two researchers independently searched the reviews, extracted the data, and cross-checked the data. The Assessing the Methodological Quality of Systematic Reviews 2 (AMSTAR 2) tool was used to evaluate the methodological quality of the included SRs and MAs. The Grades of Recommendations, Assessment, Development, and Evaluation (GRADE) system was used to assess the quality of evidence for the outcomes of the included SRs and MAs.
resultsA total of 14 SRs and MAs were included. The evaluation results of the AMSTAR 2 tool showed that the methodological quality of all the 14 SRs and MAs was critically low. The principal causes are the lack of a pre-registration proposal and a list of excluded studies and justify the exclusions, the report on the sources of funding, and the reasons for the study designs for inclusion. The results of the GRADE evaluation showed 25 of 46 outcomes were very low-level evidence. Seventeen were of low level, four were of moderate level and none were of high level. Most outcomes were downgraded in quality of evidence mainly because of publication bias and imprecision.
conclusionThe existing evidence suggests that acupuncture seems to be an effective and safe therapy for KOA. However, the deficiencies in the methodological quality and quality of evidence of the included SRs/MAs have limited the reliability of the conclusions. Therefore, further rigorous and comprehensive studies are warranted to verify the effectiveness and safety of acupuncture in KOA.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.