Clinical trial NCT03025230: Dry Needling Versus Intramuscular Stimulation in the Management of the Myofascial Trigger Points
Official title: Effectiveness of Dry Needling and Intramuscular Electrostimulation in the Treatment of Myofascial Trigger Points in Patients With Neck Pain
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Phase: NA
Conditions: Trigger Point Pain, Myofascial
Muscle Pain
Myofascial Pain Syndrome
Lead sponsor: University of Alcala
Sponsor class: OTHER
First posted: 2017-01-19
Enrollment: 80
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 18
Maximum age (years): 65
Standard ages: ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: no
Allocation: RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: PARALLEL
Primary purpose: TREATMENT

Brief summary: Hypothesis The application of intramuscular electrostimulation will be more effectiveness than the dry needling in myofascial trigger points treatment.

Objetives:

To determine the effectiveness of intramuscular electrostimulation in the treatment of trigger points of the levator scapula muscle for the improvement of pain in mechanical cervicalgia.

Participants: Subjects with diagnosed of myofascial pain syndrome in cervical region and active trigger points in levator scapulae muscle, randomly assigned to experimental or control group.

Intervention: Control group: one session of dry needling in active trigger points; experimental group: one session of intramuscular stimulation in active trigger points.

Main Outcomes Measures: Pain, pressure pain threshold (PPT), active cervical range of motion and strength muscle . The measures will be taken before, after and one week after the interventions.

Detailed description: The muscle pain is one of the most common forms of musculoskeletal pain. Within muscular pain, the presence of myofascial trigger points (PG) in the musculature is a important and prevalent problem.

Currently one the techniques most used in the treatment of PG is dry needling. Dry needling has been shown effective in the treatment of neck pain associated with PGs.

To our knowledge, there are no studies that they have compared the effectiveness of dry needling and intramuscular stimulation by applying an electric current.

This study is a randomized clinical trial that aims to demonstrate that the application of an electric current associated with dry needling in the treatment of PG.

In this study we will treat subjects with cervical pain who they have active PGs in the levator scapulae muscle.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* Cervical pain.
* Active trigger points in levator scapulae muscle

Exclusion Criteria:

* Pain Irradiation toward upper limb
* Psychological disorders
* Whiplash.
* Neuropathic symptoms
* Cervical and / or Shoulder Spine Surgery

Primary outcomes:
measure: Pressure Pain Threshold (PPT)
timeFrame: Change from baseline at one week
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Pain Visual Analogue Scale
timeFrame: Change from baseline at one week
measure: Strength in cervical latero-flexion
timeFrame: Change from baseline at one week
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Alcala de Henares
country: Spain
facility: Patricia Martínez Merinero
state: Madrid
Study officials:
affiliation: Alcala University
name: Tomás Gallego-Izquierdo, Doctor
role: STUDY_DIRECTOR
References: