Efficacy of intramuscular electrical stimulation with dry needleover classical trigger point dry needling in non-traumaticshoulder pain and dysfunction–a randomized controlled pilotstudy

Abstract

Background: Myofascial Pain Syndrome (MPS) is a common condition in most of the painful shoulder conditions and it is effectively treated with trigger point dry needling of shoulder muscles. Very few studies on Intra muscular electrical stimulation were docu-mented the effects of IMES with dry needle in treating MPS. This study was conducted to establish the clinical importance of IMES with dry needle in Myofascial pain syndrome of non traumatic shoulder disorders. Methods: 30 subjects with unilateral non-traumatic shoulder pain and dysfunction were selected and divided into two groups, 15 subjects in each group. Experimental group (7 male and 8 female subjects) treated with IMES with dry needle and control group (7 male and 8 female subjects) treated with classical trigger point dry needling twice in a week for consecutive 3 weeks. Pain, range of motion, and shoulder disability were assessed with VAS, Goniometry, and DASH-Questionnaire respectively at the end of 1st, 2nd, 3rd week, and end of 3rd month. Results: Descriptive characteristics of pre and post intervention VAS and DASH-Q, score and shoulder range of movements suggesting improvement in intramuscular electrical stimulation with dry needle. Within group comparison of VAS score and DASH-Q score in both groups in all observations shown the p value=.001 and between group comparison VAS score shown the mean 5.70 ± 1.02 standard deviation in the 1st week post intervention and DASH-Q score shown the mean 49.66 ± 9.69 standard deviation in the 1st week, mean 61.76 ± 7.30 standard deviation in the 2nd week intervention. Shoulder range of motion within group comparison was shown the p=.000 in both groups and between group comparison of shoulder abduction was shown the mean difference of 13.7 (p=.033) and 20.4 (p=.028) in the 1st and 2nd week and for shoulder external rotation shown the mean difference of 8.40 (p value= .01), and 9.60 (p=.01) in the 1st and 2nd week post intervention. Conclusion: This pilot study result suggests that both IMES with dry needle and classical trigger point dry needling are effective in treating pain and dysfunction.    And subjects treated with IMES with dry Needle more effective in producing early recovery from pain and dysfunction of shoulder compared to the Classical Trigger Point Dry Needling in myofascial pain syndrome due to Non-Traumatic Shoulder pain and dysfunction.