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Abstract

Introduction: The musculoskeletal pain is the main cause of disorders in all the societies. An important cause of these pains is the myofascial trigger points, palpable lump in the skeletal musculature, hiper sensibles, painful, formed in a tout band, and the presence of the same characterizes Myofascial Pain Syndromes. Countless treatments are utilized for this syndrome, including the dry needling, which involves the introduction of a needle on the tissue to be treated with the goal of reducing the pain.

Objetives: To evaluate the effect of the dry needling technic and the reduction of the pain caused by myofascial trigger points through a systematic review.

Metodology: Researches made on PubMed, Medline, Lilacs, PEDro and SciELO databases, between 1990 and may of 2017, with the association of the following descriptors “trigger points”, “myofascial pain syndromes” and “needles” and with the utilization of the free term “dry needling”. It was included only random clinical trials.

Results: From the 515 articles found on the data bases mentioned, 11 attended to the inclusion criteria. Summing the samples of all studies, participated of this systematic review 442 individuals, among them 130 men, 253 women and 59 didn’t have their sex specified.

Conclusion: Most part of the studies included on this systematic review showed that the dry needling is an effective technic for the reducing of the pain caused by myofascial trigger points in diferente anatomical regions of the body, for short period time, when compared to any other intervention or to simulated dry needling.

Keywords: Myofascial pain syndromes; Trigger points; Needles; Dry needling.