Myofascial pain and treatment: Editorial

Abstract

The first article featured in this quarter's overview deserves special attention. Margalef and colleagues developed the first viable animal model of trigger points (TrPs). They also provided evidence of glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) near TrPs, which is a new finding that deserves further scientific inquiry (Margalef et al 2019). In 2011, Stecco et al. already mentioned a possible role of hyaluronan, which constitutes a subgroup of GAGs, in the etiology of myofascial pain (Stecco et al 2011). Mayoral Del Moral and colleagues published an excellent study that showed very good inter-examiner reliability for identifying subjects with MPS for identifying specific muscles (Mayoral Del Moral et al 2018). Sollmann and colleagues described a new and objective method to identify TrPs, using T2 mapping with quantitative MRI-based techniques (Sollmann et al 2016). As usual, many new dry needling (DN) studies, reviews, manual TrP papers and case reports are included. Finally, we would like to thank Dr. Michelle Finnegan for her contributions to this overview paper during the past 5 years. Dr. Finnegan will be focusing on other professional endeavors and she will not return as a contributing author.

Keywords: Dry needling; Manual therapy; Myofascial pain syndrome; Trigger points.