The clinical progress and potential mechanism of massage therapy on knee osteoarthritis

Abstract

The effectiveness of massage is superior to that of joint cavity injection while the integrated therapeutic method containing massage is superior to that of single massage. Massage plays a key role in the non-drug therapy of knee osteoarthritis. Knee osteoarthritis (KOA) is a disease due to the degenerative pathological change of knee joint, which commonly occurs in the elderly. The main clinical characters of KOA are the pain, stiffness, and dysfunction of knee joint. Western medicine regarding to the treatment of KOA aims to relieve the pain and delay the progress of disease such as intra-articular injection and functional exercise. Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) therapy includes massage, herb, acupuncture, microwave, etc . Among them, the massage technique has the advantages of simpleness, effectiveness and non-invasive manipulation. The present study compared the curative effects of different therapies on KOA including Western medicine therapeutic method, single massage, complementary TCM therapeutic method containing massage and integrated TCM and western medicine therapeutic method containing massage. We found that the effectiveness of single massage method is better than that of joint cavity injection. The effectiveness of massage in combination with herb and acupuncture is better than that of massage alone. The effectiveness of joint cavity injection or functional exercise combined with massage and acupuncture is better than that of the single articular cavity injection or functional exercise. However, more research and clinical trials are still needed to determine the exact mechanism of massage.