Uso da acupuntura em pacientes com osteoartrite de joelho: estado da arte

Abstract

Introduction: Knee osteoarthritis is associated with disability and deterioration in quality of life due to increased pain, loss of mobility and consequent loss of functional independence. Acupuncture is conditionally recommended for patients with knee OA, but there is no consensus regarding the improvement of pain and function in these patients. Objective: To compare different protocols and programs for applying acupuncture to patients with knee osteoarthritis to improve pain and function, in order to guide clinical decision-making for patients with knee OA. Methods: This is a narrative literature review, which included studies such as randomized controlled clinical trials and guidelines. We searched the Physiotherapy Evidence Database (PEDro), the Osteoarthritis Research Society International (OARSI), Cochrane, the European Alliance of Associations for Rheumatology (EULAR), the American College of Rheumatology (ACR), the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) and the Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN). The Health Sciences Descriptors (DeCS) "osteoarthritis", "acupuncture", "knee", "guideline" and their combinations in Portuguese and English were used. Results: Among the articles identified from the database search, 238 were found in the Cochrane database (85%), 36 in PEDro (12.85%) and 6 in manual searches (2.14%). Thus, 9 studies were included in this review. Conclusion: From this review we can conclude that most studies point to a significant improvement in pain and function in the short term in patients with knee osteoarthritis, but there is still a lack of consensus on its use.