Dry Needling and Shoulder Muscle Blood Flow, Motions, and Pain Sensitivity in Individuals with Shoulder Pain

A sterile, disposable, solid filament needle (Seirin Corp., Shizuoka, Japan) will be inserted manually into the MTrP of the infraspinatus muscles. Once the needle has been inserted, the technique described by Hong (1994) will be used. The needle will be pistoned in an up and down motion within the infraspinatus muscle at approximately 1Hz for 10 seconds with the aim of eliciting local twitch responses.

Streitberger Placebo-needles (Asia-med, Las Vegas, NV) will be used to perform the intervention for participants in the sham DN group. These needles have been reported to be indistinguishable from real needles. The device consists of a plastic tube with a blunted tip needle that allows for the sensation of a prick without penetrating the skin. The sham needle produces a sensation, which causes the participant to feel as if the needle enters the skin, while maintaining similar patient-therapist contact time and total intervention time.