Table 2.
Evidence summary on acupuncture versus usual care for knee osteoarthritis.
| Quality assessment |
Summary of findings |
Importance of outcome | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No of patients |
Effect |
Quality | ||||||||||
| No of studies | Design | Limitations | Inconsistency | Indirectness | Imprecision | Publication bias | Acupuncture | Usual care | Relative (95% CI) |
Absolute | ||
| Pain (follow-up median 6 months; measured with: WOMAC; range of scores: 0–100; Better indicated by less) | ||||||||||||
| 2 | randomized trial | not serious | not serious | not serious | not serious | none | 520 | 531 | NA | SMD −0.52 (−0.66 to −0.39) | ⊕⊕⊕⊕ HIGH |
CRITICAL |
| Function (follow-up 6 months; measured with: WOMAC; range of scores: 0–100; Better indicated by more) | ||||||||||||
| 2 | randomized trial | not serious | not serious | not serious | not serious | none | 520 | 531 | NA | SMD −0.45 (−0.59 to −0.32) | ⊕⊕⊕⊕ HIGH |
CRITICAL |
| Hematoma (follow-up 6 months; number of patients reporting reaction) | ||||||||||||
| 1 | randomized trial | not serious | not serious | not serious | not serious | none | 12/326 (3.7%) |
1/316 (0.3%) | 11.63 (1.52 to 88.93)5 | 3% more (0.2% to 26% more) | ⊕⊕⊕⊕ HIGH |
IMPORTANT |
NA, not available.
Note: Limitations refer to methodological flaws and conduct; Hematoma refers to adverse events related to acupuncture.