Ultrasound-Guided Dry Needling Decreases Pain in Patients with Piriformis Syndrome.

Muscle Nerve. 2019 Aug 15;:

Authors: Tabatabaiee A, Ebrahimi Takamjani I, Sarrafzadeh J, Salehi R, Ahmadi M

Abstract
INTRODUCTION: Piriformis muscle syndrome (PMS) is a disorder that can lead to symptoms of buttock pain and limited hip joint mobility, and may have an impact on quality of life.
METHODS: Thirty-two patients with PMS were randomized to the treatment group, which included three sessions of ultrasound-guided dry needling (DN) of the piriformis muscle (n = 16), or to the wait-list control group (n = 16). The primary outcome was pain intensity measured on the visual analog scale recorded at baseline, and at 72 hours and 1 week after treatment.
RESULT: At 1-week follow-up, pain intensity was significantly less in the DN group than in the wait-list control group (-2.16 [-1.01 to -3.32], P = 0.007) by an amount consistent with clinically meaningful improvement.
DISCUSSION: The findings suggest that DN resulted in clinically meaningful short-term improvement in pain intensity of patients with PMS. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

PMID: 31415092 [PubMed – as supplied by publisher]