Ischemic Compression on Post-needling Soreness

Universidad Rey Juan Carlos

Status: Completed

Conditions: Neck Pain

Treatments: Procedure: Ischemic compression. Dry Needling

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT02169700

10/2014

Details and patient eligibility

About

Myofascial trigger points (MTrPs) are identified through physical examination as hypersensitive spots within taut bands of skeletal muscle, painful on compression, triggering characteristic referred pain and generating motor dysfunction as well as autonomic phenomena. Different dry needling procedures have been described in the treatment of MTrPs. Needling therapies which consist in partially inserting and withdrawing the needle from the trigger point site in order to elicit local twitch responses are associated with higher effectiveness in releasing MTrPs. Deep dry needling has obtained a grade A recommendation compared to sham, for immediate reduction of pain in patients with upper-quadrant myofascial pain syndrome. Nevertheless, trigger point dry needling are frequently associated to a post-needling soreness. The application of ischemic compression (IC) after trigger point injection in the upper trapezius muscle has shown higher reduction of pain and disability in myofascial pain patients, compared with trigger point injection alone. To the authors' knowledge, no previous studies have evaluated the effectiveness of IC or any manual therapy methods for the treatment of post-needling soreness. The aims of this study were: (a) to evaluate the effectiveness of IC on reducing post-needling soreness after dry needling of one latent MTrP in the upper trapezius muscle, and (b) to investigate the effect dry needling combined with IC, compared to dry needling alone and dry needling combined with placebo IC will have on cervical range of motion (c) to determine whether psychological factors are predictive of postneedling pain and (d) to analyze if the relationships between psychological variables and postneedling pain varied as a function of postneedling soreness treatment

Enrollment: 90 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18 to 39 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Subjects were included if they presented at least one latent MTrP in the upper trapezius muscle

Exclusion criteria

• Presence of coagulation disorders
• Neck or facial pain
• Previous application of a dry needling technique
• MTrP therapy in head or neck within the previous 3 months
• Fibromyalgia
• An insurmountable fear of needles as a reason of refusing the treatment
• History of surgery in the head or neck area

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Double Blind

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90 participants in 3 patient groups

Ischemic compression. Dry Needling

Experimental group

Description:

Ischemic compression was carried out after dry needling.

Treatment:

Procedure: Ischemic compression. Dry Needling

Sham Ischemic compression. Dry Needling

Sham Comparator group

Description:

Sham Ischemic compression was carried out after dry needling.

Treatment:

Procedure: Ischemic compression. Dry Needling

Control group

No Intervention group

Description:

No intervention. Control group