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Dry Needle Therapy

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Dry needle therapy is an invasive treatment procedure in which a needle is inserted into a muscle trigger point (Ries, 2015). The goal of dry needle therapy is to cause a local twitch response, which is defined as a “brisk contraction of a taut band of skeletal muscle fibers elicited by snapping palpation of a trigger point [TrP] in that band” (Hong, 1994). It is distinct from acupuncture and is a westernized form of trigger point therapy (Kalichman & Vulfsons, 2010). In the 1940s, doctors Janet Travell and David Simons promoted injection of substances into trigger points, or muscle knots that can cause radiating pain upon movement of the muscle or pressing on the knot to relieve pain (Kalichman & Vulfsons, 2010; DeLaune, 2015). However, the …show more content…

Current research suggests that trigger points are caused by a dysfunction in the nerves that signal the muscles to contract (Simons, Travell, & Simons 1999). When the neural activity becomes unsynchronized, it can cause muscles to contract without relaxing (Simons et al. 1999; Ge, Fernandez-de-las-Penas, & Yue 2011). This constant contraction results in a trigger point, which restricts blood flow to the taut muscle area and causes both localized and referred pain (Ge et al. 2011). Researchers theorize that DN interferes with the malfunctioning nerve signals and resets them to their normal function (Simons et al. 1999; Giamberardino, Affaitati, Fabrizio, & Costantini 2011).

B. Local twitch response The local twitch response, caused by DN, results in several physiological factors. It causes changes in muscle fiber length as well as reduces tension in the muscle knot. (Baldry 2005). Its primary function is to reset faulty nerve signals, and research by Chen et al (2001) theorizes that it accomplishes this by reducing the overactive nerve signals to the muscle knot and allowing the muscle to relax.

C. Change in blood

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