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Chronic knee pain, typically caused by osteoarthritis, often is disabling in older patients; except for analgesics, effective treatments are lacking. Patients often seek nonpharmacological alternative approaches, including acupuncture. Some studies support use of acupuncture in knee osteoarthritis (NEJM JW Gen Med Aug 1 2006), but treatment effects are meager when compared with those of sham controls rather than no-acupuncture controls.
Researchers in Australia randomized 282 patients (age, ≥50) with moderate-to-severe knee pain (duration, >3 months) to 12 weeks (8–12 sessions) of needle acupuncture, laser acupuncture (in which a low-intensity laser beam is used instead of a needle at traditional acupuncture points), sham laser acupuncture, …