Postrace Dry Needling Does Not Reduce Subsequent Soreness and Cramping—A Randomized Controlled Trial

Abstract

Objective: To identify whether a single session of postrace dry needling can decrease postrace soreness and quantity of postrace leg cramps in half-marathon and full-marathon runners. Design: Single-blind, prospective, randomized, controlled trial. Setting: Finish line of 2018 Salt Lake City Marathon & Half-Marathon. Participants: Runners aged 18 years or older who completed a marathon or half-marathon. Interventions: True or sham dry needling of the bilateral vastus medialis and soleus muscles within 1 hour of race completion by 2 experienced practitioners. Main Outcome Measures: The primary outcome measure was numeric pain rating improvements for soreness on days 1, 2, 3, and 7 compared to immediately postrace. Secondary outcome measures included number of postrace cramps and subjective improvement of soreness. Results: Sixty-two runners were included with 28 receiving true and 34 receiving sham dry needling. Objective pain scores showed an increase in pain of the soleus muscles at days 1 and 2 (P ≤ 0.003 and P ≤ 0.041, respectively) in the dry needling group. No differences were seen in postrace pain in the vastus medialis muscles (P > 0.05). No association was seen between treatment group and presence of postrace cramping at any time point (P > 0.05). Subjectively, there was a nonsignificant trend for those receiving dry needling to feel better than expected over time (P = 0.089), but no difference with cramping (P = 0.396). Conclusions: A single postrace dry needling session does not objectively improve pain scores or cramping compared to sham therapy.

Effectiveness of Dry Needling of Myofascial Trigger Points in the Triceps Surae Muscles: Systematic Review

“…The methodological quality of the studies can be considered good according to the PEDro scale, ranging from 5 to 9 with a mean score of 6.41. Albin et al [ 34 ] obtained the highest score (9 points) and Bandy et al [ 35 ], Baraja-Vegas et al [ 36 ], Pérez-Bellmunt et al [ 45 ], Janowski et al [ 43 ], and Cushman et al [ 40 ] the lowest (5 points). Detailed information is shown in Table 2 .…”

“…Concerning the risk of bias according to the ROB 2.0, Albin et al [ 34 ] obtained the lowest risk, while Cushman et al [ 40 ] obtained the highest ( Figure 2 ). The domains with the lowest risk were missing outcome data, measurement of the outcome, and selection of the reported result ( Figure 3 ).…”

“…Six studies included healthy non-athletic subjects [ 34 , 35 , 36 , 42 , 44 , 45 ], and the other six included athletes, all of them presenting MTrPs in the triceps surae muscles. From the studies in athletes, they practiced the following sports: triathlon [ 37 , 38 , 39 ], running [ 40 ], professional ballet dance [ 43 ], and any sport in which jumping, sprinting, twisting, turning, acceleration, and deceleration were important components [ 41 ]. The mean age ranged from 22.4 [ 45 ] to 42.1 [ 40 ] years, with 20–30 years being the most common age in the studies.…”

“…Regarding the protocol, all studies performed the DN to elicit LTR, but many studies stopped when reaching a maximum number of 10 insertions [ 36 , 37 , 38 , 39 , 40 ], and/or until the LTR were exhausted [ 34 , 36 , 37 , 38 , 39 , 40 ]. The remaining studies [ 35 , 41 , 42 , 43 , 44 , 45 ] did not describe it.…”

“…Concerning the comparison groups, the control groups were based on sham needling in five studies [ 34 , 35 , 40 , 42 , 43 ], which consisted of performing a simulation of the DN procedure without the insertion of the needle [ 46 ]. Three studies [ 36 , 41 , 45 ] did not perform any intervention in the control group.…”