Annotated Bibliography- Dry Needling

Dunning, J., Butts, R., Mourad, F., Young, I., Flannagan, S., & Perreault, T. (2014). Dry
needling: a literature review with implications for clinical practice guidelines. Physical
Therapy Reviews, 19(4), 252–265. https://doi.org/10.1179/108331913x13844245102034

The purpose of this article is to explain dry needling and its purpose within the realm of physical
therapy. It utilizes various long- and short-term studies where dry needling is performed to draw
conclusions on its effectiveness in neuromuscular cases. There is also an analyzation of the
definition of dry needling according to the State Physical Therapy Boards and American
Physical Therapy Association. In addition to this, the article defines myofascial trigger points,
referred to as MTrPs, and discusses its importance for dry needling techniques. Overall, this
work is important for my research due to its analyzation of this therapeutic technique and
provides me a basic understanding of the topic.

Gattie, E. R., Cleland, J. A., & Snodgrass, S. J. (2017). Dry Needling for Patients With
Neck Pain: Protocol of a Randomized Clinical Trial. JMIR Research Protocols.
https://doi.org/10.2196/resprot.7980

The purpose of this article is to study the short- and long-term effects of dry needling on those
who experience neck pain. Within this experiment, 76 individuals with acute or chronic
mechanical neck pain were observed. The source of their pain is sourced from postural
dysfunction, trauma, or insidious onset which can be treated with physical therapy. In this case, it
is a double blind, randomize, and placebo-controlled trial. The participants are split into two
groups where one is treated with manual therapy, exercise, and dry needling while the other is
treated with manual therapy, exercise and sham or placebo dry needling. Both groups will also
experience the same treatment times. After further research, it is resulted as inconclusive and
more research needs to be performed in this specific form of treatment. This article is especially
important since it shows that dry needling is still an up-incoming technique and there is still
more to learn from it.

Halle, R., Crowell, M., & Goss, D. (2020). Dry Needling and Physical Therapy Versus
Physical Therapy Alone Following Shoulder Stabilization Repair: a Randomized
Clinical Trial. International Journal of Sports Physical Therapy, 15(1), 81–102.
https://doi.org/10.26603/ijspt20200081

This article compares the results of patients that received dry needling and physical therapy
following a shoulder stabilization surgery and those who only received physical therapy. It
explains the effects of surgery on the shoulder and how dry needling may impact range of
motion, functional movement, and pain. This parallel single-blinded, randomized trial separated
participants into two groups. One being the dry needling group and the other being the control
group. Following treatment according to the assigned protocol and patient tolerance, it was found
that both groups showed similar results. But it is important to note that this technique was useful
in reducing muscle twitch response, improvement of short-term pain, and improvement of patient
tolerance. This is useful since it provides another instance where dry needling is utilized and how
it effects the body post surgically.
Navarro-Santana, M. J., Sanchez-Infante, J., Fernández-de-las-Peñas, C., Cleland, J. A.,
Martín-Casas, P., & Plaza-Manzano, G. (2020). Effectiveness of Dry Needling for
Myofascial Trigger Points Associated with Neck Pain Symptoms: An Updated
Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Journal of Clinical Medicine, 9(10), 3300.
https://doi.org/10.3390/jcm9103300

The purpose of this article is to study the effects of dry needling in relation to neck pain
symptoms. It begins with a definition of neck pain and the current approach for physical therapy
treatment. Following this, the article explains its experimental approach such as its selected
population, intervention, comparator, and outcomes. For this study, the population was split into
thirds where one group received dry needling, one received sham or placebo, and the third being
the control group without intervention. Overall, there was a significant short-term improvement
of neck pain intensity in those who received dry needling. This article is useful since one of the
therapists I observe specializes in head and neck therapy. It provides me with some background
of why she would utilize this technique for cases that mirror those in the study.

Rahou-El-Bachiri, Y., Navarro-Santana, M. J., Gómez-Chiguano, G. F., Cleland, J. A.,

López-de-Uralde-Villanueva, I., Fernández-de-las-Peñas, C., … Plaza-Manzano, G.
(2020). Effects of Trigger Point Dry Needling for the Management of Knee Pain
Syndromes: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Journal of Clinical Medicine,
9(7), 2044. https://doi.org/10.3390/jcm9072044

This article studies the effects of dry needling on knee pain syndromes. It goes on to mention that
the most common types of knee pain syndromes are patellofemoral pain and knee osteoarthritis.
For this study, the population included individuals older than 18 who experience knee pain that
align with key words such as patellofemoral pain, knee osteoarthritis, knee arthroplasty, knee
tendinopathy, knee ligament injuries, or knee meniscal injuries. The participants were placed into
one of two groups, one receiving dry needling and the other a placebo or control group. The
study discovered that dry needling relieved a participants’ pain only in short-term increments.
This article is useful since I’ve been able to experience the effect of dry needling on individuals
with knee pain and it provides a detailed insight of what this technique provides in their
treatment.