the present study no additional effects were observed with the use of EA compared with MA. Acupuncture has been proved to be effective for the treatment of several types of chronic pain and has a better performance than a placebo intervention.21 In a study comparing acupuncture and pharmacological treatment, placebo acupuncture and pharmacological treatment and pharmacological treatment alone in patients with knee OA there was a reduction of 2.78,1.58 and 1.34, respectively, in the mean pain intensity after 4 weeks of treatment.7 Ahsin et al12 studied patients with knee OA and demonstrated that the EA group showed a greater reduction (72% on average) in mean pain intensity than the placebo group, which did not show any reduction. In the present study the pain was reduced by 2.04 points in the MA group and by 2.66 points in the EA group, which suggests that this reduction results from the placebo effect and also from a real effect of the treatment. The improved TUG execution time