Effects of a Single Dry Needling Session of the Obliquus Capitis Inferior on the Altered Sensorimotor Function in People With Neck Pain: a Random Control Trial

Detailed Summary

Neck pain is the 3rd cause of disability worldwide and represents an enormous socioeconomic burden. It has been reported that people with neck pain, with traumatic and non-traumatic onset, have an alteration of the sensorimotor function compared to pain-free people, such as deficits in the head and neck repositioning or alteration of the body balance. It has been suggested that alterations on the proprioception of the suboccipital muscles may cause a decrease in head and neck repositioning accuracy and changes in head and neck positioning patterns. The suboccipital muscles, particularly the obliquus capitis inferior (OCI), has a greater density of muscular spindles compared to lower cervical segments, which is believed to play an important role in the proprioception. The alteration of the JPE is more often found in patients with a dysfunction in the upper cervical spine, but people with lower dysfunction can also exhibit it. However, no conclusive results on JPE have been reported with articular techniques targeting the upper cervical spine. On the contrary, positive results on this test have been observed after the retraining of the upper cervical muscles. As OCI is a deep muscle, dry needling seems to be the most appropriate passive modality of treatment to target that muscle and restore the abnormal cervical sensorimotor control. However, this hypothesis has never been tested.

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