The analgesic efficacy of bee venom acupuncture for knee osteoarthritis: Acomparative study with needle acupuncture

The aim of this investigation was to determine whether bee venom (BV) admin istered directly into an acupoint was a clinically effective and safe metho d for relieving the pain of patients with knee osteoarthritis (OA) as compa red to traditional needle acupuncture. We evaluated the efficacy of BV acup uncture using both pain relief scores and computerized infrared thermograph y (IRT) following 4 weeks of BV acupuncture treatment. We observed that a s ignificantly higher proportion of subjects receiving BV acupuncture reporte d substantial pain relief as compared with those receiving traditional need le acupuncture therapy. Furthermore, the IRT score was significantly improv ed and paralleled the level of pain relief.