Dry needling for lateral elbow pain

WorkSafeBC Evidence-Based Practice Group, Martin CW
Record ID 32018002736
English
Authors' objectives: To determine whether there is any evidence to support the efficacy and/or effectiveness of dry needling for lateral elbow pain.
Authors' results and conclusions: After the initial search, eleven published primary studies were deemed relevant to this systematic review. We found no high-quality evidence supporting the efficacy and/or effectiveness of dry needling, as a stand-alone or principal treatment for lateral elbow pain. At present, there may be some very low to low quality evidence on the efficacy and/or effectiveness of dry needling for lateral elbow pain, specifically for pain outcomes. This evidence need to be interpreted with caution due to the heterogeneity of the dry needling used, the inconsistent temporality of the outcome ascertainment and imprecision due to low recruitment numbers of the studies. There was no clear evidence that dry needling improved disability outcomes.
Authors' methods: A systematic literature search was conducted on commercial medical literature databases on March 08, 2022. The search was undertaken by employing combinations of keywords (full search strategies seen in Appendix 2). No limitations on date of publication were implemented in any of these searches. A manual search was also conducted on the references of the articles that were retrieved in full.
Details
Project Status: Completed
URL for project: https://www.worksafebc.com/en/about-us/research-services/evidence-based-medicine-and-systematic-reviews
Year Published: 2022
URL for published report: https://www.worksafebc.com/en/resources/health-care-providers/guides/dry-needling-lateral-elbow-pain?lang=en
English language abstract: An English language summary is available
Publication Type: Mini HTA
Country: Canada
MeSH Terms
  • Elbow Tendinopathy
  • Tennis Elbow
  • Dry Needling
Keywords
  • dry needling
  • percutaneous tenotomy
  • lateral epicondylitis
  • lateral epicondylalgia
  • tennis elbow
Contact
Organisation Name: WorkSafeBC
Contact Address: 6591 Westminster Highway, Richmond, BC, V7C 1C6 Canada. Tel: 604-231-8417; Fax: 604-279-7698
Contact Name: ebpg@worksafebc.com
Contact Email: ebpg@worksafebc.com
Copyright: WorkSafe BC
This is a bibliographic record of a published health technology assessment from a member of INAHTA or other HTA producer. No evaluation of the quality of this assessment has been made for the HTA database.