Dry needling of trigger points with and without paraspinal needling in myofascial pain syndromes in elderly patients.

OBJECTIVES To compare the efficacies of dry needling of trigger points (TrPs) with and without paraspinal needling in myofascial pain syndrome of elderly patients. DESIGN Single-blinded, randomized controlled trial. SUBJECTS Forty (40) subjects, between the ages of 63 and 90 with myofascial pain syndrome of the upper trapezius muscle. INTERVENTIONS Eighteen (18) subjects were treated with dry needling of all the TrPs only and another 22 with additional paraspinal needling on days 0, 7, and 14. RESULTS At 4-week follow-up the results were as follows: (1) TrP and paraspinal dry needling resulted in more continuous subjective pain reduction than TrP dry needling only; (2) TrP and paraspinal dry needling resulted in significant improvements on the geriatric depression scale but TrP dry needling only did not; (3) TrP and paraspinal dry needling resulted in improvements of all the cervical range of motions but TrP dry needling only did not in extensional cervical range of motion; and (4) no cases of gross hemorrhage were noted. CONCLUSIONS TrP and paraspinal dry needling is suggested to be a better method than TrP dry needling only for treating myofascial pain syndrome in elderly patients.