NCT05100381

Effectiveness of Dry Needling in Patients With Chronic Nonspecific Low Back Pain

Effectiveness of Dry Needling on Pain, Functional Disability, Postural Control and Pain Pressure Threshold in Patients With Chronic Nonspecific Low Back Pain: A Double-Blind Randomised Controlled Trial

• Status: Recruiting
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 40 (estimated)
• Sponsor: Iran University of Medical Sciences · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years – 45 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Not accepted

Summary

Low back pain is a major health problem that affects psychosocial, economical, functional and physical aspects of the patients' life. The aim of this study will be to investigate the effectiveness of dry needling on pain, functional disability, postural control and pain pressure threshold in patients with chronic nonspecific low back pain using a randomized controlled trial design. Patients with chronic nonspecific low back pain will be randomly divided into two groups: Experimental group (dry needling and routine physical therapy) and control group (sham dry needling and routine physical therapy). Primary outcomes will be pain intensity and functional disability. Postural control and pain pressure threshold will be considered as secondary outcomes.

Detailed description

Low back pain is a major health problem that affects psychosocial, economical, functional and physical aspects of the patients' life. Since patients with chronic low back pain have impaired postural control and this impairment can cause chronicity and recurrence of low back pain, it is important to evaluate the effectiveness of interventions on postural control in patients with low back pain. Previous studies have shown the effectiveness of dry needling on pain, functional disability and pain sensitivity in patients with low back pain. The effectiveness of dry needling on postural control is not fully known. The aim of this study will be to investigate the effectiveness of dry needling on pain, functional disability, postural control and pain pressure threshold in patients with chronic nonspecific low back pain. This study will be a double-blind randomized controlled trial. Forty patients with chronic nonspecific low back pain will be randomly divided into two groups: Experimental group (dry needling and routine physical therapy) and control group (sham dry needling and routine physical therapy). Primary outcomes will be pain intensity and functional disability. Postural control and pain pressure threshold will be considered as secondary outcomes. Outcomes will be assessed before and one week after the intervention. All of the participants will be identified and recruited by posters and word-of-mouth from the university and the surrounding local communities. Eligible participants will be explained about the purpose and the examination involved in this investigation, and all eligible participants will sign a written informed consent before entering the study.

Conditions

• Low Back Pain

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
OTHER	dry needling	The patients will be placed in a prone position with a pillow under their belly to accommodate lumbar lordosis. Two lengths of sterile, disposable, 0.30 mm x 75 mm and 0.30 mm x 50 mm solid filament needle (Tony, China) will be used in this study. The length of the needle for each participant will be selected based on the size of the participant. The needles will be inserted into the lumbar multifidus muscle, 1.5 - 2 cm lateral to the spinous process of two or three painful segments, perpendicular to lamina (after piercing the skin, needles are directed inferomedially). The needles will be inserted to obtain local twitch response, and this process will continue until no more local twitch response occurs in each session. Then the needles will be left in place for 20 minutes.
OTHER	sham (placebo) dry needling	The sham dry needling method includes the insertion of the needles subcutaneously and no local twitch response will be obtained. The needles will be left in the place for 20 minutes.

Timeline

• Start date: 2022-07-25
• Primary completion: 2026-07-30
• Completion: 2026-12-30
• First posted: 2021-10-29
• Last updated: 2025-05-02

Locations

1 site across 1 country: Iran