To begin Tuina intervention on the model rabbit with osteoarthritis established in its left knee, place the animal in the rabbit fixation box, and sooth it by gently stroking it for about 10 seconds. Perform the rotary kneading method using the thumb on the rabbit's left patella and the left peri-knee having muscle stiffness and tendon knots. Maintaining a force of 5 Newtons, perform an up and down, round tip manipulation at a frequency of 60 times per minute for five minutes.
Then proceed to perform Tuina on the acupoints listed on the screen. Using the thumb end, press onto each acupoint, and maintaining the same force and frequency as demonstrated previously, operate on each point for 30 seconds. To perform rotary correction on the rabbit knee joint, hold the femur with one hand while positioning the other hand behind the knee joint.
Fix the lateral and medial tibial condyles using the thumb and ring fingers respectively. Secure the popliteal fossa with the index and middle fingers. Using the fingers as demonstrated, hold the skin in place, avoiding friction between the skin and fingers.
Then keeping the direction of traction force parallel to the long axis of the tibia, apply traction and twisting force. Secure the femur again with one hand. Establish a grip on the medial and lateral edges of the patella using the thumb and little fingers of the other hand while securing the base of the patella with the index, middle, and ring fingers.
Then, keeping the direction of the torsion force in line with the direction of the lower Xiyan, apply a torsion force. Estimating the left knee ROM in the different groups of rabbits revealed that the Tuina group showed significant improvement in knee joint mobility after receiving the Tuina intervention from week seven. However, the model group that did not receive Tuina intervention showed no significant increase in ROM.
