Chinese Doctors Poke Holes in Australian Study

Chinese Doctors Poke Holes 

in Australian Study

A recent Australian clinical trial, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) in 2014 by Rana Hinman, et el., evaluating the effectiveness of both needle and laser acupuncture for chronic knee pain, caught the attention of Dr.'s Hongjian He, AP, MD, PhD; Lixing Lao, PhD, MB; Wing-Fai Yeung, BCM, PhD; and Yong Ming Li, MD, PhD. They were astonished to read that the conclusions of the study stated, "In patients older than 50 years with moderate or severe chronic knee pain, neither laser nor needle acupuncture conferred benefit over sham for pain or function. Our findings do not support acupuncture for these patients." Obviously, that statement didn't reflect their combined clinical experience. Upon further investigation, they felt there were serious design flaws in the study and wrote letters to the editor of JAMA expressing their concerns that were published in February 2015 along with the Australian researchers' responses.

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