Volume : 5, Issue : 6, June - 2016

Leech therapy in the osteoarthritis of knee joint

Rahida Hilal, Tafseer Ali

Abstract :

<p><p>&nbsp;Irsal-e-alaq, (leeching/ leech therapy) has been in use since antiquity. There is a long list of diseases for which its application can be traced in Unani system of medicine. Osteoarthritis is one of them. In this study we have evaluated the effect of leeching in patients of osteoarthritis of knee. This was a single blind randomised controlled clinical trial, done on 60 patients. All the patients were allocated into two groups, comprising of 30 patients in the test group and 30 patients in the control group. Leech therapy was given to the patients of test group, once weekly for the duration of four weeks. Patients of the control group were advised to apply diclofenac gel topically, twice daily on the affected area for the same duration. Encouraging results were obtained at the end of the study. All the data were statistically evaluated.</p></p>