Study	Reason for exclusion
Ammer 1988	results measured only after four weeks of treatment
Coan 1982	cervical OA
Dickens 1989	Results measured only after two weeks of treatment, and again two weeks later
Gaw 1975	OA in a variety of joints, including spine and results for the patients with OA of the peripheral joints were not reported separately from the results of the patients with OA of the spine.
Junnila 1982	not explicitly randomized
Kwon 2001	compared two types of acupuncture (bee venom versus traditional needle)
Loy 1983	cervical spondylosis
Lundeberg 1991	OA of neck
McIndoe 1994	results measured only after 4 weeks of treatment
Milligan 1981	Could not find a copy of this abstract. All co‐authors of the abstract were contacted and none had a copy. Also an attempt was made to locate the conference proceedings in which the abstract was published, but the attempt was unsuccessful.
Ng 2003	Results measured only after two weeks of treatment, and again two weeks later
Petrie 1983	cervical OA
Petrie 1986	cervical OA
Petrou 1988	results measured only after two and a half weeks of treatment
Thomas 1991	cervical OA
Tillu 2001	compared two types of acupuncture
Tillu 2002	not explicitly randomized
Weiner 2007	not Chinese style acupuncture ‐‐ needles not placed at meridian points
Yurtkuran 1999	results measured only after two weeks of treatment
Zherebkin 1998	not explicitly randomized; included both hip and knee joint patients