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. 2025 Feb 15;29(1):48.
doi: 10.1007/s11916-025-01362-7.

Periosteal Electrical Dry Needling Efficacy in Knee Osteoarthritis: A Systematic Review

Alan D Kaye  1 , Olivia Mipro  2 , Brynne E Tynes  3 , Brennan Abbott  3 , Caylin Roberts  3 , Jelena Vučenović  4 , Kyle Jenks  5 , Matthew Sharpe  5 , Isabella B Lentz  5 , Shahab Ahmadzadeh  5 , Varsha Allampalli  5 , Saajid Azhar  6 , Noah Embry  6 , Sahar Shekoohi  7
Affiliations

Periosteal Electrical Dry Needling Efficacy in Knee Osteoarthritis: A Systematic Review

Alan D Kaye et al. Curr Pain Headache Rep. .

Abstract

Purpose of review: Osteoarthritis is a "wear and tear" injury characterized by degeneration of articular cartilage, formation of osteophytes, microfractures, and sclerosis. These physiological changes result in joint pain, stiffness, and deformity. One potential treatment for this is periosteal electrical dry needling.

Recent findings: We performed a systematic search for studies in PubMed, Google Scholar, Embase, and Cochrane. Sources published from 2014 to the present were eligible for inclusion in the review. After an initial search, 48 studies were identified, 22 of which were duplicates that were subsequently removed. The remaining 26 were filtered by title and abstract, resulting in six studies approved for final analysis. Of the six, four found significant improvement in pain and mobility after dry needling was administered as either an adjuvant or stand-alone therapy. Electrical Dry Needling is a promising treatment for Knee Osteoarthritis. More large-scale randomized control trials are needed to evaluate its efficacy as a stand-alone treatment more fully. This review demonstrates some support for dry needling in alleviating knee pain and immobility. Future studies are needed to examine the long-term effects of dry needling and its comparative efficacy to standard treatment.

Keywords: Electrical dry needling; Joint mobility; Knee osteoarthritis; Knee pain.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declarations. Conflict of Interest: ADK is the editor in Chief of CPHRs Human and Animal Rights and Informed Consent: This article is based on previously conducted studies and does not contain any new studies with human participants or animals performed by any of the authors.

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