Effects of Acupuncture, Moxibustion, Cupping, and Massage on Sports Injuries: A Narrative Review

Table 3

The application of moxibustion for various diseases.

Condition	Intervention	Acupoints	Comparison	Primary outcome measure	Effective rate/results/conclusion	References
Chronic knee osteoarthritis pain	Moxibustion	ST35 and Ashi point	Sham moxibustion	Osteoarthritis index (WOMAC VA 3.1) criteria	Moxibustion could relieve pain effectively and improve function	[34]
Collateral ligament injury of interphalangeal joints	Mild moxibustion	Affected digital joints	Specific electromagnetic spectrum	VAS for pain	83.4%	[35]
Osteoarthritis	Heat-sensitive moxibustion (HSM)	SP9, GB34, ST34, and SP10	CM and CI with sodium hyaluronate	GPCRND-KOA	It provided some evidence for the superiority of HSM	[36]
Acute tennis elbow	Ginger moxibustion and painkiller	Ashi points	Painkiller	VAS for pain	94.59%	[37]
Collateral ligament injury of knee joint	Heat-sensitive moxibustion	SP10, ST34, and ST35	Surgery	VAS for pain	VAS scores of two groups had statistical significance	[38]

Note. CM: conventional moxibustion; CI: conventional injection; GB: shaoyang gallbladder channel of foot.; GPCRND-KOA: guiding principle of clinical research on new drugs in the treatment of KOA; KOA: knee osteoarthritis; SP: taiyin spleen channel of foot; ST: yangming stomach channel of foot; VAS: visual analogue scale.