COMPARATIVE EFFECT OF DRY NEEDLING AND NEURAL MOBILISATION ON PAIN, STRENGTH AND QUALITY OF LIFE IN PATIENTS WITH LATERAL EPICONDYLITIS: TWO GROUP PRETEST POSTEST DESIGN

Background: - Lateral Epicondylitis is the most prevalent condition of the elbow which causes pain over the lateral aspect of the elbow and weakness in grip strength. This study is planned to investigate between Dry Needling and Neural Mobilization technique and its effectiveness in the management of lateral epicondylitis.
Purpose: - The purpose of this study was aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of the comparative effect of Dry Needling and Neural Mobilization in order to treat lateral epicondylitis.
Material and methods: - Participants with lateral epicondylitis within age group between 35-54 years having Cozen test and ULTT2b positive will be included in the study .Participants were recruited by purposive sampling method and were allotted into Group 1 and Group2 randomly. Group1 received Dry Needling with Conventional therapy and Group2 received Neural Mobilization with Conventional therapy . The intervention was given on alternate days for a period of 2 weeks. Pre and post treatment outcome were assessed with PRTEE Questionnaire, Algometer, Hand held Dynamometer and Goniometer.
Results: - Data analysis was done by Wilcoxon signed rank test /paired t-test for within group and Mann Whitney U-test/independent t-test for between groups. The significance level will be set at 0.05. All outcome measures showed highly significant results post 2-week intervention.
Conclusion: Both the groups received the treatment hence both interventions provided positive effects to the participants with lateral epicondylitis. However, adding Dry Needling treatment technique to the previous conventional therapy further provided an improvement to the pain, grip strength, range of motion, and quality of life of the participants.

背景：桡骨外上髁炎为肘部最常见的疾病，主要表现为肘外侧疼痛及握力下降。本研究旨在探讨干针疗法与神经松动术在治疗桡骨外上髁炎中的疗效差异。研究目的：本研究的目的是评估干针疗法与神经松动术在治疗桡骨外上髁炎中的比较疗效。材料与方法：纳入35-54岁年龄段的桡骨外上髁炎患者，经Cozen测试和ULTT2b测试结果为阳性。受试者通过目的抽样法招募，并被随机分配至第1组和第2组。第1组接受干针疗法与传统疗法相结合的治疗，第2组接受神经松动术与传统疗法相结合的治疗。干预措施每隔一天进行一次，为期两周。通过PRTEE问卷、痛觉测痛仪、手持握力计和量角器评估治疗前后结果。结果：采用Wilcoxon符号秩和检验/配对t检验进行组内数据分析，Mann Whitney U检验/独立t检验进行组间数据分析。显著性水平设定为0.05。所有结果指标在两周干预后均显示出高度显著性。结论：两组均接受了治疗，因此两种干预措施均对桡骨外上髁炎患者的疼痛、握力、活动范围和生活质量产生了积极影响。然而，将干针疗法技术加入既往传统疗法中，进一步改善了患者的疼痛、握力、活动范围和生活质量。