Objective: To observe the clinical efficacy of different acupuncture modalities in the treatment of adhesive capsulitis a tthrough different clinical stages.Methods: Ninety patients of adhesive capsulitis weregraded in three different stages based on clinical presentations.Patients in painful stage were treated with silver needles once every 5to 7 days for two courses;patients in adhesive stage were given acupotomy treatment every 7 to 10 days for two courses;while patients in recovery stage were treated with acupuncture with warm needles by moxibustion on tendon knots,once a day 10 times in a course,for two courses of treatment.The disease scores were compared between all groups before and after the treatment,and clinical efficacy was evaluated after the treatment.Results: The disease scores in patients of all three stages were higher after treatment,and the differences were statistically significant (all P ＜ 0.05).Among 90 patients with adhesive capsulitis,32 cases were clinically under controlled,37 cases claimed remarkably effective,18 were effective,and 3 ineffective cases,thus the total effective rate for this stage-based treatment is 96.7％.Conclusion: For adhesive capsulitis,different acupuncture modalities targeting patients in different clinical stages were feasible and effective,the disease scores of patients were significantly improved.