Dry needling of the gluteus-medius muscle, combined with standard care, for chronic low back pain - a pilot randomized sham-controlled trial.

Background: Individuals with low back pain (LBP) often exhibit weakness and the presence of trigger points in their Gluteus Medius (GMe) muscle.

Objectives: To examine the effectiveness of adding dry needling (DN) for the GMe to standard care of active physical therapy in patients with chronic nonspecific LBP.

Methods: A randomized, prospective, sham-controlled trial was conducted. Participants with chronic nonspecific LBP (N = 22, age range: 31-55 years) were randomly divided into intervention and control groups. Both groups received active physical therapy including exercises for 6 treatments. In addition, at each session, the intervention group received deep DN to their GMe muscle, and the control group received sham needling. Outcome measures included level of pain (using VAS scale), function (Oswestry disability index ODI), low back range of motion (ROM) (forward flexion and schober tests), and global rating of change. The research group was further divided into moderate and minimal disability according to the ODI.

Results: The research group showed greater improvement in pain level compared with control (p = 0.01). The change in ODI was higher in the moderate LBP group compared with the control group (B = 5.25, p < 0.05). The change in forward flexion distance test was higher in the moderate disability LBP group compared with the control group (B = 6.31, p < 0.01). Simple mean analysis also revealed a significant difference between the moderate and minimal disability groups (B = 6.16, p = 0.01).

Conclusions: Incorporating DN into physical therapy treatments for chronic nonspecific low back pain, can improve pain level and function.

Clinical trials registration no: NCT04498572 (clinicaltrial.gov).