Using Structural Health Monitoring to Improve Diagnosis and Treatment of Low Back Injury in U.S. Service Members- Phase 2

"The dry-needling treatment will consist of inserting a sterile needle into needling the prone participant's lumbar multifidus and paraspinal muscles, 1-2 times each, in regions of local tenderness to palpation and/or regions with palpable trigger points. All needling treatment will be performed with FDA approved (FDA regulation # 880.5580) disposable 0.30 x 50-60 mm stainless steel Seirin J-type needles (Seirin, Japan). Each needle insertion will last approximately 5 seconds using a pistoning (in and out) technique."

The sham dry-needling procedure will mimic the dry needling procedures by placing a sharp object in a needling guide tube against the skin (see figure). The sharp object will be rocked and twisted to simulate treatment, but will not pierce the skin. We have used this sham dry-needling technique in a previous study performed at AMEDDC\&S and have found it to be indistinguishable from real dry needling by the great majority of participants.