Dry Needling Versus Conventional Physical Therapy in Patients With Knee Osteoarthritis

Completed · Not applicable

Conditions studied: Knee Osteoarthritis

In brief

The purpose of this research is to compare the effectiveness of conventional physical therapy (manual physical therapy, exercise, range of motion, and stretching) versus conventional physical therapy combined with dry needling in patients with knee osteoarthritis (OA). Physical therapists commonly use conventional physical therapy techniques and dry needling to treat knee OA, and this study is attempting to find out if the addition of dry needling to conventional physical therapy has an equal, greater, or lesser effect than conventional physical therapy alone.

Key facts

Study ID

NCT02373631

Run by

Alabama Physical Therapy & Acupuncture

People needed

105

Starts

2015-02-01

Expected to finish

2017-05-19

Last updated by the study team

2017-05-23

Who can join

Age: 18 and older. Sex: any. Healthy volunteers: not accepted.

You may qualify if…

• Report of knee pain of at least 2/10 per NPRS (0---10 scale) for >3 months
• Report of at least 3 of the following per Altman et al. (1986)
• Over 50 Years of age
• Less than 30 minutes of morning stiffness
• Crepitus on active motion
• Bony tenderness
• Bony enlargement
• No palpable warmth of synovium

You may not qualify if…

• Report of red flags to manual physical therapy to include: hypertension, infection, diabetes, peripheral neuropathy, heart disease, stroke, chronic ischemia, edema, severe varicosities, tumor, metabolic disease, prolonged steroid use, fracture, RA, osteoporosis, severe vascular disease, malignancy, etc.
• History of previous surgery to the knee
• History of physical therapy, massage therapy, chiropractic treatment, or injections for knee pain in the last 4 weeks
• History of a surgical procedure on either lower extremity in last 6 months
• Two or more positive neurologic signs consistent with nerve root compression, including any two of the following:
• Weakness involving a major muscle group of the lower extremity.
• Diminished patella or achilles tendon reflex
• Diminished or absent sensation to pinprick in lower extremity dermatome
• Involvement in litigation or worker's compensation regarding knee pain.
• Any condition that might contraindicate the use of electro-needling
• The patient is pregnant.

Where it is running

• Alabama Physical Therapy & Acupuncture — Montgomery, Alabama, United States

Full record on ClinicalTrials.gov

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