[Acupuncture as complementary medicine in patients with osteoarthritis of the knee].

The popularity of integrative medicine, mainstream medical therapies combined with complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), increased in recent years in the USA and western countries. However, evidence based data on the efficacy of integrative medicine and safety is incomplete. Until recently, research on the use of acupuncture in osteoarthritis had methodological limitations such as low sample size.