Abstract:Objective To investigatethe clinical effect of external application of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) combined with intraarticular injection in the treatment of knee osteoarthritis (KOA).Methods Atotal of 96 patients were randomly divided into treatment group with 50 patients and control group with 46 patients. The patients in the control group were given injection of 25 mg sodium hyaluronate into the knee articular cavity combined with isokinetic musclestrength basic rehabilitation training, and those in the treatment group were given external application of Jiangu Zhuyu Decoction in addition to the treatment for the control group. Each course of treatment was 1 week, and both groups were treated for 5 courses. The two groups were compared in terms of Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) score before and after treatment and clinical outcome after treatment.Results After treatment, the treatment group had significant increases in the scores of each item of knee joint function (P<0.05),while the control group had no significant improvements in myodynamia and knee stability and had significant increases in the scores of the other items (P<0.05); the treatment group had significantly greater increases in the scores of all items than the control group (P<0.05).There was a significant difference in the distribution of clinical outcomes between the two groups(P<0.05).Conclusion Intraarticular injection combined with external application of modified Jiangu Zhuyu Decoction can alleviate pain, improve knee joint function, and reduce clinical symptoms in the treatment of KOA.