OBJECTIVETo comparatively study the curative effects of combined massage-smouldering-washing therapy (MSW) and mini-invasive surgery in treating knee osteoarthritis (KOA) of mild-moderate degree so as to provide a suitable therapeutic protocol.

METHODSSixty patients with KOA were assigned to two groups. The treatment group was treated with MSW once a day for 10 days as one course, and 4 courses were applied totally with an interval of 3 days between courses. The control group was treated with mini-invasive surgery by arthroscopic mopping, followed with post-operational intra-articular cavity injection with sodium hyaluronate injection, 20 mg every week for 5 times continuously. The therapeutic effect and the changes in scores of clinical symptoms and signs before and after treatment in the two groups were observed and compared.

RESULTSOutcome of 3-month follow-up showed the effective rate was 90% in the treatment group and 93.33% in the control group; scores of clinical symptoms and signs effectively improved in both groups, but the improvement on the 4 items (joint pain, swelling, soreness of loin and knee, and cold aversion of knee) was superior in the treatment group, while that on the other 4 items (pain during squatting or half-squatting, up stairs or down stairs, joint stiffiness and joint kinetic capacity) was superior in the control group (P < 0.05).

CONCLUSIONBoth MSW and mini-invasive surgery have definite curative effect on KOA but with different particularities.