Database: Study 12 of 26 studies              Database Hip - TEAS First author and date Fargas-Babjak AM 1992 Version consulted C Condition chronic osteoarthritis (hip, knee) Study type DB RCT pilot N / Groupings 56 / Codetron vs sham Codetron; only 37 completed course Type of acupuncture TEAS Points used BL-30, BL-60, GB-34, LI-4, ST-36, SP-9, Du-14, ashi and extra pts (pts selected to stimulate supraspinal, sciatic, peroneal, femoral, sural, saphenous and tibial nerves) Parameters used 4 Hz in 200 Hz bursts, each burst 125 msec; 100 us pulse duration, individualised high intensity; placebo 0.2 Hz at 500 μA [Codetron] Stimulation duration 30 mins Number of sessions initial treatment performed in clinic; home treatment 2/day, 6 wks Follow up no details Endpoint measure patients evaluated by rheumatologist before and after 6 wks of treatment; functional status, goniometry of involved knee or hip, knee circumference, 50 feet walking time, tenderness of involved joint and soft tissue; VAS and West Haven Yale Multidimension Pain Inventory (WH/Y) to evaluate pain; those with <25% change on VAS considered failures; those with improvement of 1 or more units or WH/Y considered successes Outcome apart from pain measures, all outcomes were insensitive to change; using VAS there was an improvement in 74% of patients in treatment group compared with 27.8% in placebo group; using WH/Y scale, improvement occurred in 68.5% of treatment group, compared with 27.8% in placebo group; no correlation found between decreased tenderness, circumference of the affected joint, 50 feet walking time and pain relief achieved Additional notes stimulation of deep muscle afferents necessary Analysis / problems value of this treatment for chronic OA of the hips and knees is most impressive, with 70%+ of patients improved, but it is complicated by lack of study parameters, unknown number of treatments given etc, and no longterm follow up; if this treatment is as good as indicated in this paper then more studies should have been done to confirm these results and also longterm effectiveness, but they do not seem to have been carried out so far; placebo treatment was in fact a microcurrent treatment, not a sham treatment - what does this say about microcurrent therapy? Is it just equal to placebo therapy at 28%! References Fargas-Babjak AM, Pomeranz B, Rooney PJ Acupuncture-like stimulation with codetron for rehabilitation of patients with chronic pain syndrome and osteoarthritis. Acupuncture and Electro-therapeutics Research. 1992; 17(2): 95-105 Secondary references - Data entry code GG-m9/JoC70/JoC 645