Trigger points in medical practice - current therapeutic directions

Abstract

Recent scientific evidence suggests that one of the causes of myofascial pain syndromes responsible for the occurrence of chronic headaches, among other things, may be increased or impaired with trigger point therapy. This paper presents the results of a non-systematic literature review on trigger point therapy. The analysis shows a clear increase in scientific interest in invasive trigger point pain treatment techniques. Invasive therapy consists primarily of the use of injections and dry needling. Injections of anesthetics or botulinum toxin are methods that, in addition to their possible therapeutic effect, may carry side effects. In contrast, dry needling does not have a fully scientifically-proven effect. Recent scientific data also indicates that the aforementioned method may have a limited clinical effect. The performed analysis did not demonstrate a significant advantage in invasive techniques over typical non-invasive techniques. It is therefore necessary to design randomized multi-center clinical trials to definitively verify the efficacy of these techniques in the treatment of tension-type trigger point-dependent myofascial pain.