Ultrasound-guided dry needling decreases pain in patients with piriformis syndrome

Piriformis muscle syndrome (PMS) is a disorder that can lead to symptoms of buttock pain and limited hip-joint mobility, and may have an impact on quality of life.

Thirty-two patients with PMS were randomized to the treatment group, which included three sessions of ultrasound-guided dry needling (DN) of the piriformis muscle (n = 16), or a waitlist control group (n = 16). The primary outcome was pain intensity measured on the visual analog scale recorded at baseline and then at 72 hours and 1 week after treatment.

At 1-week follow-up, pain intensity was significantly less in the DN group than in the waitlist control group (-2.16 [-1.01 to -3.32], P = .007) by an amount consistent with clinically meaningful improvement.

The findings suggest that DN resulted in clinically meaningful short-term improvement in pain intensity of patients with PMS.