An interventional study of dry needling + physiotherapy (standard/usual care) and sham dry needling + physiotherapy (standard/usual care) in Multiple Sclerosis, sponsored by Hospital Universitario de Canarias. Completed at 1 site in Spain. Open to participants aged 18 Years to 65 Years. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2023-11-29.
Sponsored by Hospital Universitario de Canarias · Not applicable, Interventional, and Treatment
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic, inflammatory, autoimmune disease characterized by the appearance of lesions, characterized by heterogeneity in its pathological, clinical and radiological presentation. It has a significant socioeconomic impact, affecting interpersonal relationships and causing a significant reduction in quality of life.
Patients with MS suffer from a series of symptoms (ocular, spasticity, cerebellar, sensory, fatigue, depression) that may be independent of the course of the disease and their management significantly influences quality of life and also requires multidisciplinary therapeutic measures.
Physiotherapy and occupational therapy techniques are essential to reduce spasticity and prevent complications derived from it. Amongst physiotherapy techniques, we can find minimally invasive techniques such as dry needling which uses a fine filiform needle to penetrate the skin and mechanically break the myofascial trigger points, charactewrized by abnomral/pathological electrical activity. There have been previous studies with dry needling in stroke patients which have shown improvements in gait, but its effectiveness in other populations such as multiple sclerosis is still unclear.
In addition, dry needling has proven to be a cost-effective treatment for spasticity in patients with chronic and subacute stroke and could be an alternative to other pharmacological treatments, although more studies are necessary to compare both the effectiveness and the cost-effectiveness .
Recent studies carried out in patients with multiple sclerosis suggest that dry needling can improve mobility and gait speed. The main objective of the study is to analyze the effect of the application of a single session of dry needling in the lower limbs on the gait of patients with multiple sclerosis.
A prospective randomized parallel group clinical trial with blinded outcome assessment will be conducted. Participants will be recruited from the Hospital Universitario de Canarias.
3,460 studies on the registry are indexed under Multiple Sclerosis; 661 are open to participants now.
This study's enrollment of 18 is below the median of 50 across 2,342 interventional studies indexed under Multiple Sclerosis.
Browse Multiple Sclerosis studies →Hospital Universitario de Canarias is the lead sponsor of 30 studies on the registry; none are open to participants now.
Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.
Exclusion Criteria:
The intervention group will have a single session of dry nedling application in the medial gastrocnemius + usual care (physiotherapy)
Device: dry needling + physiotherapy (standard/usual care)
The control group will have a single session of sham dry nedling in the medial gastrocnemius + usual care (physiotherapy)
Other: sham dry needling + physiotherapy (standard/usual care)
same that arm descrption
same that arm description
Change in Timed 25-Foot Walk (T25FW)
is a quantitative mobility and leg function performance test based on a timed 25-walk. This is considered the "gold standard" to assess gait speed in MS patients. The test measures the time in seconds that the patient needs to walk 25 feet (7.5 meters).
Time frame: inmediatly before intervention, inmediatly after intervention, a week after the intervention and a month after the intervention
Change in Multiple Sclerosis Walking Scale (MSWS-12)
is a self-report measure of the impact of MS on the individual´s walking ability. Each item is scored from 1 (no limitation) to 5 (extreme limitation), with a total score ranging from 12 to 60, where higher values show higher impairment . MSWS-12 scale shows properties which make it suitable for use in clinical practice, concretely for patients with medium-to-high levels of walking disability
Time frame: inmediatly before intervention, a week after the intervention and a month after the intervention
Change in The Time up and go test (TUG)
was designed initially to measure the probability for falls among older adults, but has been validated also for other populations such as MS. For this test, the participants sit in a chair with their backs supported by the back of the chair and their arms resting on the armrests. The participants are asked to get up from the chair and walk a distance of 3 me-ters, to turn on themselves (360°) and walk back to the chair and sit down again. The TUG test has demon-strated to be highly reliable and responsive in the assessment of respectively the walking capacity and general mobility of patients with MS with mild disability
Time frame: inmediatly before intervention, inmediatly after intervention, a week after the intervention and a month after the intervention
Change in The Multiple Sclerosis International QoL (Musiqol-54)
This is a specific quality of life questionnaire for MS. This is a self-assessment question-naire composed of 54 items, divided in a physical and mental domain. The range goes from 0 to 100, where 100 is the highest degree of quality of life. The Spanish version of the MSQoL 54 instrument has shown to be a valid and reliable instrument for measuring qual-ity of life in patients with MS
Time frame: inmediatly before intervention and a month after the intervention
Change in analog scale of quality of life
analog scale of quality of life from 0 to 10
Time frame: inmediatly beforeintervention, a week after intervention and a month after intervention
This study is completed, as verified in Nov 2023. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.
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Hospital Universitario de Canarias