Photobiomodulation and Laserpuncture Evaluation for Knee Osteoarthritis Treatment: A Literature Review

Osteoarthritis is a degenerative joint disease that commonly affects weight-bearing joints, being the knee the most affected one. Treatment options include invasive therapies and non-pharmacological therapies (pain education, exercise programs, electrotherapy, acupuncture and ozone therapy). Another form of treatment that has been increasingly studied and used in patients with knee osteoarthrosis is photobiomodulation therapy, which despite its conflicting results has been considered effective in reducing the inflammatory process when used alone or associated with exercise programs or acupuncture. When associated with acupuncture, laser has proven to be effective despite few high-quality randomized controlled studies on the subject. Recently, patients have been seeking less and less invasive and natural treatments, making more and more professionals train, practice and research the effects of treatments such as acupuncture and laserpuncture. Objectives: To conduct a literature review on photobiomodulation for the treatment of KOA, focusing on the use of low-level laser therapy associated with acupuncture points. Methodology: An integrative literature review was carried out between March and May 2020 on PubMed and the Physiotherapy Evidence Database (PEDro). The selection criteria used were English language and articles published in the last 10 years that included the keywords: “knee”, “osteoarthritis”, “photobiomodulation”, “laserpuncture” and “acupuncture”. Results: Out of the 50 articles found, 30 were selected for presenting methodology or applications of replicable techniques. Conclusion: After this review, we could note that there is still a very small number of controlled and randomized articles with relevant data on the effects of photo-biomodulation in acupuncture points for the treatment of KOA. Additionally, we could observe that the surveyed articles differ in their forms of tabulation and data analysis, making it difficult to compare them. We suggest that further studies be performed on the subject to produce more relevant data and make the use of these therapies a consensus.