Improvement of Hip Pain After Total Hip Arthroplasty With Dry Needling as an Adjunct to Conventional Physiotherapy: A Case Series

Abstract

While total hip arthroplasty (THA) is one of the most common and successful orthopedic surgeries, some patients may experience persistent, recurrent, or new hip pain despite successful THA. Dry needling (DN) is a common treatment for musculoskeletal pain, yet little data has been published on the use of DN on hip pain after THA. This series highlights two patients with prior THA and current hip pain that improved with DN used alongside conventional physiotherapy exercises.Patient 1, a 70-year-old male four years post left THA, presented to a physical therapist with a three-year history of left hip pain. Patient 2, a 65-year-old female 10 years post right THA, presented with a onemonth history of right hip pain after a fall. Both patients were reported to have a stable prosthesis without clinical or radiological evidence of loosening or other major complications. Examination of both patients revealed decreased hip range of motion, decreased hip strength, and lateral hip trigger points suggestive of a muscular origin of pain. The physical therapist treated both patients with DN alongside strengthening and stretching exercises, yielding significant improvements in pain severity, function, and range of motion.These cases illustrate the successful use of DN alongside conventional physiotherapy to alleviate hip pain in patients with previous THA. Further research is needed to examine the efficacy and safety of DN for hip pain in individuals with prior THA.

Comparison of fascia iliaca block with quadratus lumborum block for hip arthroplasty: A meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials

“…[4,5] Perioperative analgesia is able to reduce opioid consumption, improve immediate postoperative function, and patient satisfaction. [6][7][8] Regional analgesia techniques have been developed to optimize multimodal analgesia technique in order to improve pain relief, decrease opioid requirements, time to first mobilization, and hospital length of stay. [9][10][11] Fascia iliaca block (FIB) shows important potential in pain control and the decrease in opioid consumption for surgery.…”