Management of Various Musculoskeletal Disorders by Different Kinds of Agnikarma Methods- A Systematic Review

Musculoskeletal disorder is a very common condition that affects a person in one or any other form, irrespective of the age group. It includes various conditions, i.e., osteoarthritis of the knee, calcaneal spur, plantar fasciitis, sciatica, and frozen shoulder. Such conditions can be considered under the wide umbrella of Vata Vyadhi with its various presentations according to Ayurveda. Agnikarma, a para-surgical procedure, is mentioned as a treatment modality for different conditions of Vata Vyadhi in the classics. Acharya Sushruta has mentioned 10 different types of Dahana Upakarana according to the manifestation site of the disease. Many research works or clinical trials are being carried out by researchers on different forms of Agnikarma for the management of various musculoskeletal disorders. Among them, many research works remain as grey literature in the library. Hence, summarization of research works published in the research journals is necessary to know the treatment methodology of different forms of Agnikarma for the management of various musculoskeletal conditions. In this review article, all the clinical studies or trials are included that are available in online databases. To accomplish this purpose, data mining was carried out through various search engines such as Ayush portal, DHARA, Google Scholar, J Gate, PubMed, Research Gate, Sci-Hub, and Shodhaganga, and journals such as ASL, AYU, AyuCaRe, IAMJ, IJA CaRe, IJAR, JAIM, Journal of Ayurveda, JRAAS. During the search with different keywords related to Agnikarma and musculoskeletal disorders, a total of 237 articles were found online. Among these, some articles were scattered on various digital platforms with duplications and the same work on various search engines and Ayurveda journals. In this review article, a total of 38 different research works have been included. Among them, 01 work a pilot study, 12 works are case reports, 01 work a case series, 05 works are single-arm studies, and 19 works are comparative clinical studies. The present review article provides information about different methodologies of Agnikarma in the management of various conditions of the musculoskeletal system.