Clinical effect of super laser plus herbal fumigation and washing combined with intra-articular injection of sodium hyaluronate in treatment of knee osteoarthritis:a report of 43 cases

Objective:To observe the clinical effect of traditional Chinese medicine(TCM) combination therapy in the treatment of knee osteoarthritis.Methods:A total of 86 patients with knee osteoarthritis were randomly divided into treatment group(n = 43) and control group(n = 43).The treatment group received super laser plus herbal fumigation and washing combined with intra-articular injection of sodium hyaluronate,while the control group received intra-articular injection of sodium hyaluronate alone.The course of treatment was 4 weeks in both groups.The treatment outcomes of the two groups were compared after 4 weeks of treatment.Results:The treatment group had an overall response rate of 90.69% and a marked response rate of 79.06%,versus 62.7% and 34.88% in the control group(P 0.01 for both comparisons).In addition,the moderate and severe patients in treatment group also had significantly higher overall response rate and marked response rate than the control group(P 0.01 for both comparisons).Conclusion:TCM combination therapy has a significantly better clinical effect than intra-articular injection of sodium hyaluronate alone in the treatment of knee osteoarthritis and shows promise for clinical application.