EIM dry needling faculty leader and KinetaCore founder, Edo Zylstra, PT, DPT, OCS, published new research in the February 2020 issue of The International Journal of Sports Physical Therapy. This study looked at information collected from over four hundred physical therapists to determine and report the minor and major adverse events associated with therapeutic dry needling.

Here are some key takeaways:

• 7,531 minor adverse events were reported, or 36.7% of the reported therapeutic dry needling treatments. The three most common minor adverse events were bleeding, bruising, and pain during dry needling.
• Twenty major adverse events were reported, or less than 0.1% of the reported therapeutic dry needling treatments.
• The researchers found no associations between the frequency of adverse events and the number of patients treated, practitioner age, level of education, years in practice, level of training or months experience with dry needling.

You can access the full paper here.

The International Journal of Sports Physical Therapy | Volume 15, Number 1 | February 2020 | Page 103 DOI: 10.26603/ijspt20200103