Effectiveness of Dry Needling for Improving Gait in the Patient With Multiple Sclerosis

Brief summary (registry, in English)

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic, inflammatory, autoimmune disease characterized by the appearance of lesions, characterized by heterogeneity in its pathological, clinical and radiological presentation. It has a significant socioeconomic impact, affecting interpersonal relationships and causing a significant reduction in quality of life. Patients with MS suffer from a series of symptoms (ocular, spasticity, cerebellar, sensory, fatigue, depression) that may be independent of the course of the disease and their management significantly influences quality of life and also requires multidisciplinary therapeutic measures. Physiotherapy and occupational therapy techniques are essential to reduce spasticity and prevent complications derived from it. Amongst physiotherapy techniques, we can find minimally invasive techniques such as dry needling which uses a fine filiform needle to penetrate the skin and mechanically break the myofascial trigger points, charactewrized by abnomral/pathological electrical activity. There have been previous studies with dry needling in stroke patients which have shown improvements in gait, but its effectiveness in other populations such as multiple sclerosis is still unclear. In addition, dry needling has proven to be a cost-effective treatment for spasticity in patients with chronic and subacute stroke and could be an alternative to other pharmacological treatments, although more studies are necessary to compare both the effectiveness and the cost-effectiveness . Recent studies carried out in patients with multiple sclerosis suggest that dry needling can improve mobility and gait speed. The main objective of the study is to analyze the effect of the application of a single session of dry needling in the lower limbs on the gait of patients with multiple sclerosis. A prospective randomized parallel group clinical trial with blinded outcome assessment will be conducted. Participants will be recruited from the Hospital Universitario de Canarias.

What you commit to

• Study type: Interventional
• Participants enrolled: 18
• From 3 Jul 2023 to the primary completion date, 2 Nov 2023
• 1 site in 1 country
• Visits and tests: ask the trial team, the registry does not list them

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Who cannot take part

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Who the study is looking for

Age in the registry: 18 years to 65 years · Sex: All · Does not accept healthy volunteers

Full criteria on ClinicalTrials.gov

Sites (1)

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