COMPARISON OF PROLOTHERAPY AND DRY NEEDLING ONPAIN, DISABLITY, RANGE OF PASSIVE STRAIGHT LEG RAISINGAND KINESIOPHOBIA IN PATIENT WITH CHRONIC SCIATIC PAIN
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.71000/wajnze70Keywords:
Dry Needling; Kinesiophobia; Low Back Pain; Pain Measurement; Prolotherapy; SciaticaAbstract
Background: Chronic sciatic pain can substantially affect pain, mobility, disability, and fear of movement. Prolotherapy and dry needling are used as interventional or adjunctive approaches for persistent musculoskeletal pain, but direct comparative evidence in chronic sciatica is limited.
Objective: To compare the effects of prolotherapy and dry needling on pain, disability, passive straight leg raise, and kinesiophobia in patients with chronic sciatic pain.
Methods: This single-blind randomized clinical trial recruited 40 adults aged 20–50 years with unilateral chronic sciatic pain from three hospitals in Lahore. Participants were allocated by a random-number generator to prolotherapy plus therapeutic ultrasound (n=20) or dry needling plus the same ultrasound protocol (n=20). Six intervention sessions were delivered at 15-day intervals. Outcomes were the Oswestry Disability Index (ODI), Tampa Scale of Kinesiophobia (TSK), Numeric Pain Rating Scale (NPRS), and passive straight leg raise (SLR). Paired-samples t tests assessed within-group change. Between-group differences in change scores were evaluated using independent-samples tests, and 95% confidence intervals were calculated from the available summary statistics.
Results: All 40 randomized participants completed follow-up and were analyzed. Both groups showed significant within-group improvement in ODI, TSK, NPRS, and SLR (all p<0.001). Compared with dry needling, prolotherapy produced greater mean improvement in ODI (mean difference [MD] 3.23 points, 95% CI 1.28–5.18; p=0.002), TSK (MD 3.57 points, 95% CI 0.36–6.78; p=0.031), and SLR (MD 2.06°, 95% CI 0.64–3.48; p=0.006). The between-group difference in NPRS improvement was not significant (MD 0.27 points, 95% CI −1.11 to 1.65; p=0.694).
Conclusion: Both prolotherapy and dry needling, when combined with therapeutic ultrasound, were associated with improvement in pain, disability, kinesiophobia, and passive SLR. Prolotherapy showed larger improvements in disability, kinesiophobia, and SLR, while pain reduction was similar between groups. These findings should be interpreted in the context of the small sample and short-term trial design.
Keywords: Dry Needling; Kinesiophobia; Low Back Pain; Pain Measurement; Prolotherapy; Sciatica
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Copyright (c) 2026 Dr. Muhammad Umar, Dr Hira Jabeen, Dr. Waqas Ashraf Chaudhry, Dr. Warda Shafique (Author)
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