Dry needling trigger points

Pain treatment sometimes involves teasing apart trigger points.

Everyone has knots in their muscles that are irritatingly painful. Sometimes these pains appear a ways away from the actual issue – referred pain. While such myofascial pain can be treated by exercise, or massage, a less known treatment is dry needling – insertion of a needle in the trigger point itself and “loosening” it. I spoke to my physiotherapist, Auke Ham, who is an expert in this technique at his clinic. In this interview, he speaks about how he diagnoses pain, how he uses needles to lessen it and how effective it is in pain management.

References

1.  Tesch RS, Macedo LCDSP, Fernandes FS, Goffredo Filho GS, Goes CPQF. Effectiveness of dry needling on the local pressure pain threshold in patients with masticatory myofascial pain. Systematic review and preliminary clinical trial. Cranio. 2019 Mar 27:1-9. doi: 10.1080/08869634.2019.1588518
2. Manafnezhad J, Salahzadeh Z, Salimi M, Ghaderi F, Ghojazadeh M. The effects of shock wave and dry needling on active trigger points of upper trapezius muscle in patients with non-specific neck pain: A randomized clinical trial. J Back Musculoskelet Rehabil. 2019 Mar 1. doi: 10.3233/BMR-181289.
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5. Gildir S, Tüzün EH, Eroğlu G, Eker L. A randomized trial of trigger point dry needling versus sham needling for chronic tension-type headache. Medicine (Baltimore). 2019 Feb;98(8):e14520. doi: 10.1097/MD.0000000000014520.
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7. Haser C, Stöggl T, Kriner M, Mikoleit J, Wolfahrt B, Scherr J, Halle M, Pfab F. Effect of Dry Needling on Thigh Muscle Strength and Hip Flexion in Elite Soccer Players. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2017 Feb;49(2):378-383. doi: 10.1249/MSS.0000000000001111.

© ShebaAJ, Auke Ham

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