Objective:To observe the clinical value of filiform fire needling combined with warming-needle moxibustion for knee osteoarthritis(KOA)of wind-cold-dampness type.Methods:A total of 80 cases of KOA patients of wind-colddampness type were randomly divided into the control group and the observation group,40 cases in each group.The control group was treated with warming-needle moxibustion,and the observation group was additionally treated with filiform fire needling based on the treatment of the control group.Both groups were treated for four weeks.After treatment,the clinical effect in the two groups was compared.The improvement of knee pain before and after treatment was evaluated by Visual Analogue Scale(VAS),the improvement of osteoarticular inflammation by Western Ontario and Mcmaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index(WOMAC), the improvement of limb function by Japanese Orthopaedic Association(JOA), and the changes of indexes of gait by gait analyzers.Both groups were followed up for one year,and the changes of quality of life were evaluated by 36-Item Short Form Health Survey(SF-36).Results:The total effective rate was 95.00% in the observation group,significantly higher than that of 77.50% in the control group,the difference being significant(P< 0.05).Before treatment,compared with the scores of VAS,WOMAC and JOA,the indexes of gait and the SF-36,there was no significance in the difference(P > 0.05).In the first,second,third and fourth week after treatment respectively,the scores of VAS in the two groups were decreased(P< 0.05),and the scores in the observation group were all lower than those in the control group,the difference being significant(P < 0.05).In the fourth week after treatment,the scores of WOMAC and JOA in the two groups were decreased(P < 0.05),and the above scores in the observation group were lower than those in the control group(P < 0.05);the walking speed and stride length in the observation group were larger than those in the control group,the difference being significant(P<0.05).The scores of SF-36 in the two groups were increased when compared with those before treatment;in the third,sixth and twelfth month after treatment,the scores of SF-36 in the observation group were higher than those in the control group,differences being significant(P< 0.05).Conclusion:The therapy of filiform fire needling combined with warming-needle moxibustion has definite curative effect in treating KOA of wind-cold-dampness type,which can reduce the scores of WOMAC,VASand JOA,improve the score of SF-36 and the recovery of gait.