Dry Needling With Percutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation and Exercises for Non-specific Chronic Neck Pain

Universidad de Almeria

Status: Active, not recruiting

Conditions: Neck Pain

Treatments: Other: Dry Needling with Percutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation (PENS) and Therapeutic Exercises.; Other: Therapeutic Exercise

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT07015281

AP-0429-2023-C4-F3

Details and patient eligibility

About

The aim of this study is to compare the effects of applying dry needling with percutaneous electrical nerve stimulation + exercises verus therapeutic execises in patients with non-specific chronic neck pain.

Full description

Globally, neck pain is considered the fourth leading cause of years lived with disability. It is estimated that up to 70% of the world's population will experience neck pain at least once in their lifetime, and between 50% and 85% of cases will become chronic within a five-year period.

The point prevalence of neck pain in the adult population, aged 15-74 years, ranges from 5.9% to 38.7%. This prevalence has been observed to peak in the 50-74 age group. In 2017, the global age-standardized prevalence and incidence of neck pain were 3551.1 and 806.6 per 100,000 population, respectively.

Dry needling with percutaneous electrical nerve stimulation has positive short-term effects on pain intensity, pain-related disability, and mood in patients with chronic nonspecific neck pain, compared with no or minimal intervention. However, the long-term impact could not be assessed due to a lack of available studies. Furthermore, strong evidence has been found suggesting that dry needling with percutaneous electrical nerve stimulation may improve mental well-being and mood in patients with chronic neck pain, especially in those with pain induced by high levels of stress.

Enrollment: 100 estimated patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18 to 65 years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Men and women aged between 30 and 65 years.
• A diagnosis of non-specific neck pain,
• Acceptance and signing of informed consent for voluntary participation in the research study.
• Not currently receiving physiotherapy.

Exclusion criteria

• Patients undergoing rehabilitative treatment for cervical pathologies.
• Patients with osteosynthesis material at the cervical level and/or cardiac, epileptic, or tumour-related complications.
• Patients who have undergone radiotherapy. in the last 6 months.

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Double Blind

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100 participants in 2 patient groups

Dry Needling with Percutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation (PENS) and Therapeutic Exercises.

Experimental group

Description:

Patients assigned to this group (n=50) will receive an intervention in which PENS will be applied for 30 minutes with low frequency parameters (2 Hz) and a pulse width of 120 μs. After 30 minutes of PENS in both groups, the needle will be removed and a compression will be applied for 90 seconds. Once the compression will carried out, the technique will be concluded. Patients will develop a session of PENS and a session with therapeutic exercise once a week.

Treatment:

Other: Therapeutic Exercise

Therapeutic Exercise

Active Comparator group

Description:

These participants (n=50) will engage in an exercise protocol with aerobic, isometric, resistence, strength, and stretching exercises. Participants will perform these exercises with a frequency of 3 times a week for 6 weeks, with each session lasting 30 minutes.

Treatment:

Other: Dry Needling with Percutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation (PENS) and Therapeutic Exercises.