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A critical overview of the current myofascial pain literature – January 2016

Dommerholt, Jan; Finnegan, Michelle; Grieve, Rob; Hooks, Todd

Authors

Jan Dommerholt

Michelle Finnegan

Rob Grieve Rob.Grieve@uwe.ac.uk
Senior Research Fellow (Knowledge Exchange)

Todd Hooks



Abstract

© 2016 Elsevier Ltd. Reflecting on the past year, the number of publications on myofascial pain continues to increase in a steady rate. The current review includes 30 basic and clinical studies, case reports, reviews, and reports from fifteen different countries about trigger points (TrP), myofascial pain (MP), dry needling (DN) and other related interventions. We are pleased that during 2015 this article made the top 15 of most downloaded articles as many as three times! In general, the quality of published papers is improving as well. Nevertheless, several papers included in this overview, mention the application of "ischemic compression", which is a questionable concept in the context of TrP inactivation. As we have outlined previously, in the current thinking about myofascial pain, TrPs feature significant hypoxia and a lowered pH (Ballyns et al., 2011; Shah and Gilliams, 2008), and attempts to induce more ischemia would be counterproductive. Already in 1999, Simons, Travell and Simons changed the terminology from ischemic compression to TrP compression (Simons et al., 1999) and we recommend that contemporary researchers and clinicians adopt the new terminology and stop using the term "ischemic compression.".

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Dec 1, 2015
Online Publication Date Jan 14, 2016
Publication Date Jan 14, 2016
Deposit Date Dec 10, 2020
Journal Journal of Bodywork and Movement Therapies
Print ISSN 1360-8592
Publisher Elsevier
Peer Reviewed Not Peer Reviewed
Volume 20
Issue 1
Pages 156-167
DOI https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbmt.2015.12.014
Public URL https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/6943259
Additional Information This article is maintained by: Elsevier; Article Title: A critical overview of the current myofascial pain literature – January 2016; Journal Title: Journal of Bodywork and Movement Therapies; CrossRef DOI link to publisher maintained version: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbmt.2015.12.014; Content Type: article; Copyright: Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.