Dry needle stimulation of myofascial trigger points evokes segmental anti-nociceptive effects
John Z. Srbely, James P. Dickey, David Lee, Mark Lowerison
DOI: 10.2340/16501977-0535
Abstract
Objective: To test the hypothesis that dry needle stimulation of a myofascial trigger point (sensitive locus) evokes segmental anti-nociceptive effects.
Design: Double-blind randomized controlled trial.
Subjects: Forty subjects (21 males, 19 females).
Methods: Test subjects received intramuscular dry needle puncture to a right supraspinatus trigger point (C4,5); controls received sham intramuscular dry needle puncture. Pain pressure threshold (PPT) readings were recorded from right infraspinatus (C5,6) and right gluteus medius (L4,5S1) trigger points at 0 (pre-needling baseline), 1, 3, 5, 10 and 15 min post-needling and normalized to baseline values. The supraspinatus and infraspinatus trigger points are neurologically linked at C5; the supraspinatus and gluteus medius are segmentally unrelated. The difference between the infraspinatus and gluteus medius PPT values (PPTseg) represents a direct measure of the segmental anti-nociceptive effects acting at the infraspinatus trigger point.
Results: Significant increases in PPTseg were observed in test subjects at 3 (p = 0. 002) and 5 (p = 0. 015) min post-needling, compared with controls.
Conclusion: One intervention of dry needle stimulation to a single trigger point (sensitive locus) evokes short-term segmental anti-nociceptive effects. These results suggest that trigger point (sensitive locus) stimulation may evoke anti-nociceptive effects by modulating segmental mechanisms, which may be an important consideration in the management of myofascial pain.
Lay Abstract
Comments
Do you want to comment on this paper? The comments will show up here and if appropriate the comments will also separately be forwarded to the authors. You need to login/create an account to comment on articles. Click here to
login/create an account.