Ischemic Compression on Post-needling Soreness

Not Applicable

Completed

• Conditions: Neck Pain
• Interventions: Procedure: Ischemic compression. Dry Needling

• Registration Number: NCT02169700
• Lead Sponsor: Universidad Rey Juan Carlos

Brief Summary

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

Detailed Description

Not available

Study Timeline

• Study Start: 2013-12
• Primary Completion: 2014-02
• Study Completion: 2014-05
• Study First Submitted: 2014-06-17
• Study First Submitted QC: 2014-06-18
• Study First Posted: 2014-06-23
• Status Verified: 2015-09
• Last Update Submitted: 2015-09-28
• Last Update Posted: 2015-09-29

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: COMPLETED
• Sex: All
• Target Recruitment: 90

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

Study & Design

• Study Type: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Design: PARALLEL

Arm && Interventions

Group	Intervention	Description
Ischemic compression. Dry Needling	Ischemic compression. Dry Needling	Ischemic compression was carried out after dry needling.
Sham Ischemic compression. Dry Needling	Ischemic compression. Dry Needling	Sham Ischemic compression was carried out after dry needling.

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Visual analog scale (VAS)	From Baseline in pain intensity at during needling and at 72 hours	VAS. Despite being a subjective evaluation, it has been documented in previous studies its reliability and validity and its sensitivity to the clinical changes. For this reason, this scale has been used in numerous clinical trials. The patient places a vertical mark on a flat horizontal line of 10 cm. One extreme is 0 (no pain) and the other extreme is 10 (maximum pain) and it must be a difference of 2 points in the evaluation range to produce minimal improvement which is clinically significant

Secondary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Cervical Range of Motion (CROM)	CROM measurements were taken before needling, after the intervention, and at 24 and 72 hours post-treatment.	The subjects sat in a chair and a CROM goniometerc was placed over his or her head. They were asked to perform active neck movements to the fullest extent of their mobility. Each movement was recorded three times and the average value was calculated. The CROM measurement device has proven to be a reliable measure33 of movement, with an intra-rater reliability ranging from 0.7 to 0.9 and an inter-rater reliability ranging from 0.8 to 0.87.

Trial Locations

Locations (1)

Universidad Rey Juan Carlos; 🇪🇸 Alcorcón, Madrid, Spain