Pain Reduction After Laser Acupuncture Treatment in Geriatric Patients with Knee Osteoarthritis: a Randomized Controlled Trial.

AIM: to compare the effectiveness of active laser acupuncture with placebo on reducing pain intensity and improving functional outcome in geriatric patients with knee osteoarthritis (OA). METHODS: a double-blind randomized controlled trial was conducted in geriatrics with knee OA at Medical Acupuncture Outpatient Clinic, Integrated Geriatric Outpatient Clinic, Rheumatology Outpatient Clinic of Cipto Mangunkusumo Hospital, Jakarta, during May to October 2015. Sixty two patients with knee OA were randomly assigned into two groups: active laser acupuncture group or placebo laser acupuncture group. Interventions were carried out using a gallium aluminum arsenide laser device at the ST35 Dubi, ST36 Zusanli, SP9 Yinlingquan, GB34 Yanglingquan and EX - LE - 4 Neixiyan acupuncture points on the affected knee for ten sessions of treatment, i.e. twice a week. Patients were assessed using a visual analogue scale (VAS) and Lequesne index at baseline, after four sessions, after nine sessions and at 2 weeks after the treatment had been stopped. RESULTS: the VAS scores were significantly improved in the active laser acupuncture group compared to the placebo group. The evaluation of VAS scores was carried out after four treatment sessions (mean difference: 0.39; p<0.001), after nine treatment sessions (mean difference: 37.48; p<0.001) and at 2 weeks post intervention (mean difference: 39.15; p<0.001). The evaluation also showed significant improvement of Lequesne index after four treatment sessions (mean difference: 4.68; p<0.001), after nine treatment sessions (mean difference: 5.90; p<0.001) and at 2 weeks post intervention (mean difference: 6.48; p<0.001). CONCLUSION: active laser acupuncture is effective in reducing pain.

Risk factors for depressive symptom changes in Indonesian geriatric outpatient.

AIM: to determine risk factors for depressive symptom changes in geriatric outpatients. METHODS: a prospective cohort study was conducted on 106 geriatric outpatients at Integrated Geriatric Clinic Cipto Mangunkusumo Hospital, Jakarta in 2010. A structured questionnaire was applied to obtain independent variable such as age, sex, educational level, chronic diseases (diabetes mellitus, chronic kidney diseases, hypertension, dyslipidemia, and osteoarthritis), functional status (WHO-Unescap score), nutritional status (body mass index), health related quality of life (Eq5D score), hospitalization within 6 months, and total calorie intake. Depressive symptom as dependent variable was assessed using Geriatric Depression Scale. The association between aforementioned various factors with depressive symptom changes were analyzed using multiple logistic regression analysis. RESULTS: most of subjects were women (63.2%), aged 70 years old and older (71.0%) and had hypertension (82.1%). There were 22.6% subjects with increase in GDS score during 6-month follow-up. Bivariable analysis showed that diabetes mellitus and chronic kidney diseases were significantly associated with depressive symptom changes. Multiple logistic regression showed that variable which independently associated with depressive symptom changes was uncontrolled chronic kidney disease (OR 3.390; 95% CI 1.07-10.76. CONCLUSION: uncontrolled chronic kidney disease is risk factor for depressive symptom changes in geriatric outpatients.