ObjectiveTo observe the effectiveness of oral glucosamine hydrochloride and cupping therapy in the treatment of knee osteoarthritis. MethodsA total of 113 patients treated from February 2013 to February 2015 were randomly divided into three groups. All the three groups of patients underwent conventional treatment. The Cupping treatment group had 39 patients; 37 patients were treated with oral glucosamine hydrochloride, and another 37 patients accepted combined treatments of cupping therapy with oral glucosamine hydrochloride. Six weeks after treatment, pain degree of the patients and Lequesne index were used to assess the clinical efficacy of the treatments. Patients who had oral glucosamine hydrochloride underwent routine examinations of blood and urine, and received liver and kidney examinations. One year later, telephone follow-up was conducted to observe long-term efficacy. ResultsSix weeks after treatment, the combined treatment group was significantly better than the other two groups in terms of pain relief degree and effective rate (P ＜ 0.05) . One year after treatment, the combined treatment group and the oral treatmentgroup had a significant advantage over the cupping treatment group (P ＜ 0.05) , while there was no significant difference between the combined treatment group and oral treatment group. ConclusionsThe combined oral glucosamine hydrochloride and cupping therapy has an obvious short-term efficacy, which quickly relieves pain and improves the activity function of the knee. Oral glucosamine hydrochloride has a very good effect in the long-term treatment of osteoarthritis.