A Case Study Looking at the Effectiveness of Deep Dry Needling for the Management of Hypertonia

Abstract

Backgrounds: The patient is a four-year-old child with spastic tetraparesia.

Findings: A decrease in spasticity was observed in all the muscles being treated with deep dry needling, measured with the Modified Ashworth Scale [MAS]. There was also a gain in passive range of movement in the thumb.

Conclusions: Treatment with deep dry needling decreased resistance to passive movement. It is difficult to determine whether decreased resistance to passive movement measured with the MAS is due to changes in viscoelastic properties or to decreased spasticity. Since we treat trigger points, it is possible that improvement in MAS scores could be more due to changes in the viscoelastic properties than in spasticity.

KEYWORDS:

• Muscle spasticity
• muscle hypertonia
• myofascial pain syndromes
• trigger point
• dry needling
• Modified Ashworth Scale