Some Problems of Warm Acupuncture in the Treatment of Knee Osteoarthritis

Knee osteoarthritis(KOA)is a chronic derivative joint issue that mainly damages the artistic cartilage and leads to pain,swelling,and stiffness around the joint,which is commomly worldwide.With the aging of society and the increment in obesity rate,the incidence of KOA increases sharply,which seriously effects the quality of human life.Before,how to take effective treatment methods is very important.Severe ways to treat the disease include non-steroidal drugs,local injections,surgery,and cell and gene therapies.However,each therapy has certain defections,such as gastrotestinal tract irritation,cardiovascular safety,or high medical costs for patients.Traditional Chinese medicine has a long history in treating KOA,reported by acupuncture,massage,internal administration of traditional Chinese medicine,and external use of traditional Chinese medicine.In clinical practice,patients can be treated from the root agreement to different etiology,and patients can be treated agreement to different syndrome types by syndrome difference to achieve effect.Studies have shown that warm acupuncture is effect in treating KOA.It has two kinds of treatment methods:acupuncture and moxibustion at the same time.It has fewer side effects and is more acceptable to patients.However,there are still some problems in the basic research and clinical application of warm acupuncture and moxibustion in treating KOA.This paper discussed the existing problems from the followingfive aspects:lack of unified synthesis difference and treatment system,problems in clinical research,weak basic research,problems in the study of moxibustion,and lack of the best treatment program recognized by the academic community.Meanwhile,the selection of acupoints,the relationship between acupuncture depth and anatomy should be further studied in order to offer research ideas for the healthy development of the treatment of KOA with warming acupuncture and moxibustion in the future.