Dry Needle Stimulation of Myofascial Trigger Points Evokes Segmental Anti-Nociceptive Effects
J Rehabil Med 2010; 42: 463–468 ORIGINAL REPORT DRY NEEDLE STIMULATION OF MYOFASCIAL TRIGGER POINTS EVOKES SEGMENTAL ANTI-NOCICEPTIVE EFFECTS John Z. Srbely, DC, PhD1, James P. Dickey, PhD2, David Lee, DC3 and Mark Lowerison, BSc, MSc4 From the 1Human Health and Nutritional Sciences, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, 2School of Kinesiology, Univer sity of Western Ontario, London, 3Clinical Education, Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College, Toronto, and 4Centre for the Genetic Improvement of Livestock, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada Objective: To test the hypothesis that dry needle stimulation lifetime (1). Myofascial pain is one of the most common of a myofascial trigger point (sensitive locus) evokes segmen- examples of musculoskeletal pain; an accumulating body tal anti-nociceptive effects. of evidence suggests that unique hypersensitive loci, named Design: Double-blind randomized controlled trial. myofascial trigger points in the literature, are intimately as- Subjects: Forty subjects (21 males, 19 females). sociated with the pathophysiology and clinical manifestation Methods: Test subjects received intramuscular dry needle of myofascial pain (2). puncture to a right supraspinatus trigger point (C4,5); con- Trigger point injections with local anesthetics have been trols received sham intramuscular dry needle puncture. performed to alleviate musculoskeletal pain since the early Pain pressure threshold (PPT) readings were recorded from 1930s. No significant differences in subjective pain have been right infraspinatus (C ) and right gluteus medius (L S ) 5,6 4,5 1 reported when comparing the effects of lidocaine injection with trigger points at 0 (pre-needling baseline), 1, 3, 5, 10 and 15 dry needle stimulation of trigger points (3), suggesting that the min post-needling and normalized to baseline values.
[Show full text]