The Effect of 8 Constitution Acupuncture on degenerative arthritis of knee joint

퇴행성(退行性) 슬관절염(膝關節炎)에 체질침요법(體質鍼療法)이 미치는 영향

Objective: This study was designed to compared the effect of general acupuncture on degenerative arthritis of knee joint with 8 constitution acupuncture by Visual Analogue Scale(VAS). Methods: VAS was used for this research, with the pain indicator of 10 and 0 which represents a pain of first visit and a status of no pain respectively. Two groups, consisting of 40 patients, was randomly allocated for this research. SPSS(Statistic Program for Social Science) 10.0 for window was used for a statistical analysis. Independent T-test and Mann Whitney U test was performed to evaluate the improvement of each group by the treatment number and to compare that of two groups. Results: As a result of the comparison analysis between two groups after 20th treatment, the improvement of subjective symptoms in 8 constitution acupuncture group was shown more effective than that in general acupuncture group, while, After 10th treatment, there was no significant difference between two groups in VAS. Conclusion: It is suggested that the effect of 8 constitution acupuncture should be significantly different from that of general acupuncture on degenerative arthritis of knee joint. Further study is needed to confirm the effectiveness of 8 constitution acupuncture.