Efficacy of Cupping Therapy with Colchicum Oil in Knee Joint Osteoarthritis: A Randomized Controlled Pilot Study

The cupping therapy (Ilaj bil Hijamah) has been used in Unani System of Medicine to treat various ailments including joint pain. A small randomized trial was conducted on knee joint osteoarthritis patients to compare the efficacy of cupping therapy with local application of Colchicum luteum oil (Roghan Suranjan) against Diclofenac gel. Intervention was carried out in 30 patients (15 in each group) over a period of 6 weeks. Primary outcome measure was Visual analogue score of pain. Secondary end points consisted of active range of motion (knee flexion) and the eight meter walk test. Mixed models were used for statistical analysis. Significant improvements in disease-specific symptoms were observed after six weeks of treatment in patients receiving cupping therapy with colchicum oil. Pain level of test group decreased by 38.06%, Control group (the group which received the Diclofenac gel) showed decrease in pain by 14.39%. Eight meter walk test showed 26.87% improvement in comparison to control group in which 12.86% change was noted. No significant difference was observed in active range of motion in both the groups. However, in this study blinding was not feasible, sample size was small and duration of study was short, therefore we emphasize the preliminary nature of this study.