Researchers from the IIS Aragón have participated in a study on the effectiveness of dry needling for improving gait in patients with multiple sclerosis

Researchers from the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and the Research Unit of the Canary Islands University Hospital (HUC) have participated together with specialists from the University of Zaragoza and the Health Research Institute of Aragon (iHealthy research group) in a study that seeks to evaluate the effectiveness of the “dry needling” technique in improving gait disorders in patients with multiple sclerosis

Gait disorders or alterations constitute a relevant cause of disability and reduced quality of life among people suffering from multiple sclerosis. To achieve a normal gait, an adequate level of coordination of the different muscles of the lower limbs is required so that the stimuli generated in the brain are transmitted to the muscles at the precise moment and with the appropriate intensity. When this communication is altered or the muscle cannot contract properly, speed, coordination and gait synchronization are lost, also increasing the risk of falls. 

Precisely, researchers from the University of Las Palmas and the Research Unit of the University Hospital of the Canary Islands (HUC) They participate alongside specialists from the University of Zaragoza and of the Aragon Health Research Institute (Investigation Group iHealthy) in a study that seeks to evaluate the effectiveness of dry needling in improving gait disorders in patients with multiple sclerosis.

This study has formed part, along with three other publications on this topic, of the thesis of Physiotherapist Alberto Javier Ormazábal, led by researchers Montserrat González Platas and Pablo Herrero Gallego, the latter a researcher at the University of Zaragoza and the IIS Aragón. The iHealthy research group, which is an international reference in invasive physiotherapy applied to patients with neurological injuries, has collaborated in this study by advising researchers on methodological aspects and in the analysis of the results, which have finally been published in the journal Healthcare Logistics.

In this study, the technique commonly known as “dry needling” was used, which is a non-pharmacological alternative increasingly used by physiotherapists for the treatment of pain, spasticity and other movement disorders in patients with neurological injuries. This technique, which is based on the insertion of fine needles into the so-called “myofascial trigger points” or muscle contractures, causes them to “break”, having been shown to have sufficient scientific evidence to recommend its use in the treatment of spasticity in patients who have suffered a stroke.

This randomized, double-blind study with 18 patients is the first developed in multiple sclerosis, showing promising results that are expected to serve to launch studies with a larger sample of patients. The data analyzed lead the authors to point out that dry needling has great potential as a therapeutic tool for the treatment of gait disorders in patients with multiple sclerosis, which integrated into the usual physiotherapy treatments could contribute to enhancing its results. . Although the small number of patients with whom this study has been carried out prevents us from drawing conclusions at the moment, it is expected that it will serve as a basis for launching new studies that evaluate the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of this treatment, as well as It occurred when research began in patients with stroke, where the iHealthy group is currently developing the first clinical trial that allows comparing dry needling with botulinum toxin infiltration.