ArticleFrontiers in medicine2025
Electroacupuncture superiority in knee osteoarthritis: a meta-analysis of four acupuncture techniques.
Article in Frontiers in medicine, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers, 1 of them a synthesis 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
4 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Current status and research gaps of neuromodulation in the rehabilitation of knee osteoarthritis: a scoping review.Frontiers in neurologyPooled it
- Myofascial Trigger Point-Augmented Acupuncture vs Conventional Acupuncture for Early- to Mid-Stage Knee Osteoarthritis: A Randomized Clinical Trial.Journal of pain research · 2026Trial
- Pain Modulation, Inflammation-Regulatory Mechanisms, and Translational Boundaries of Evidence for Acupuncture-Related Therapies in Knee Osteoarthritis: A Structured Narrative Review.Journal of pain research · 2026Review
- Infrapatellar Fat Pad in Knee Osteoarthritis: A Comprehensive Review of Pathophysiology and Targeted Therapeutic Strategies.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Background: Knee osteoarthritis is the most prevalent chronic joint disease affecting persons >50 years, which significantly impairs the patients' lives. Although acupuncture can treat knee osteoarthritis; none of the studies have compared the effectiveness of four common acupuncture techniques (electroacupuncture, filiform acupuncture, warming acupuncture, and fire acupuncture) in knee osteoarthritis. Methods: The Web of Science, EMBASE, PubMed, Scopus, and CNKI databases were searched for the clinical randomized controlled trials of electroacupuncture, filiform acupuncture, warming acupuncture, and fire acupuncture in the treatment of knee osteoarthritis published before September 1, 2024. We collected 52 studies and used R software to analyze data. Results: The results of meta-analysis showed that the efficacy rates for electroacupuncture, filiform acupuncture, warming acupuncture, and fire acupuncture were 91.5, 83.4, 84.9, and 83.5%, respectively. The respective visual analog scale (VAS) scores were 2.1, 3.2, 2.9, and 4.1, respectively. Moreover, the patient's age and body mass index (BMI) can negatively affect the efficacy rate of acupuncture therapies, whereas age and BMI positively impacts the VAS scores. Conclusion: Thus, our study suggests that electroacupuncture has the best clinical efficacy for knee osteoarthritis; however, patients' age and BMI should be considered in future acupuncture therapies.
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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.