Neck Pain, Chronic Pain, Myofascial Pain Syndrome
Conditions
Keywords
Percutaneous electrical nerve stimulation, Myofascial trigger point
Brief summary
Comparison between high and low frequency percutaneous electrical nerve stimulation as treatment of myofascial chronic neck pain. The main hypothesis is that low frequency treatment will have more hypoalgesic effects than high frequency, and low frequency effects will last longer.
Interventions
PROCEDURELow frequency
A dry needling on trapezius muscle is performed, until two local twitch responses are obtained. The needle is kept inside the trigger point, as it will be the negative electrode, and an adhesive electrode will be added as the positive one. After that, a low frequency TENS is applied, at 2 Hz frequency and 120 microseconds of pulse width.
PROCEDUREHigh frequency
A dry needling on trapezius muscle is performed, until two local twitch responses are obtained. The needle is kept inside the trigger point, as it will be the negative electrode, and an adhesive electrode will be added as the positive one. After that, a high frequency TENS is applied, at 12o Hz frequency and 200 microseconds of pulse width.
Sponsors
Centro Universitario La Salle
Study design
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Primary purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
DOUBLE (Subject, Outcomes Assessor)
Masking description
Randomized list that was only known by the therapist. Subjects do not know about the treatment they were receiving.
Intervention model description
Double blind randomized control trial.
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
18 Years to 65 Years
Healthy volunteers
No
Inclusion criteria
* Neck pain of more than 6 months of evolution. * Pain level of more than 30 millimeter on the VAS scale. * Active myofascial frigger points on upper trapezius muscle.
Exclusion criteria
* Upper limb radiculopathy. * Recent whiplash. * Cervicogenic dizziness. * Migraine. * Previous cervical surgery.
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Pain | Changes on pain will be assessed during one month follow up. Baseline will be measured on the first day and one month later pain score will be reassessed. | Subjective feeling expressed by subjects in the area of discomfort. It will be measured by a Visual Analogue Scale, meaning a score of 0 points/centimiters no pain and a score of 10 points/centimiters unbearable pain. |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Pressure pain threshold | Changes on pain will be assessed during one month follow up. Baseline will be measured on the first day and one month later pain score will be reassessed. | Minimal amount of pressure that induces pain. An algometer will be used to measure pressure pain threshold. Units will be kilograms per square centimeter. The higher the score is, the less sensitive the area will be. |
| Neck disability index. | Pre treatment at the beginning of the study and one month later, on the last of the follow up period. | Ten items questionnaire designed to asses the level of pain and self-assessment of cervical disability. The NDI (Spanish version) is composed of 10 questions related to daily functional activities. NDI presents an acceptable reliability with an intraclass correlation coeffcient (ICC) ranging from 0.50 to 0.98. It has been proposed that the clinically important difference required for NDI is seven points. |
| kinesiofobia | Pre treatment at the beginning of the study and one month later, on the last of the follow up period. | Eleven items questionnaire designed to asses pain-related fear. TSK-11, Spanish version. |
Countries
Spain
Outcome results
None listed