BACKGROUND Traditional strategies for myofascial pain relief provide transient, incomplete, variable, or unpredictable outcomes. Botulinum toxin is itself an analgesic but can also cause sustained muscular relaxation, thereby possibly affording even greater relief than traditional therapies. METHODS The study goal was to determine whether direct injection of botulinum toxin type A (BoNT-A) in...

Trigger points (TrP) are hyperirritable spots in a taut band of a skeletal muscle, which usually have referred pain. There is controversy over whether TrP are a peripheral or central nervous system phenomenon. Referred pain, the most characteristic sign of TrP, is a central phenomenon initiated and activated by peripheral sensitization, whereby the peripheral nociceptive input from the muscle c...

OBJECTIVE To test the hypothesis that dry needle stimulation of a myofascial trigger point (sensitive locus) evokes segmental anti-nociceptive effects. DESIGN Double-blind randomized controlled trial. SUBJECTS Forty subjects (21 males, 19 females). METHODS Test subjects received intramuscular dry needle puncture to a right supraspinatus trigger point (C4,5); controls received sham intramu...

We compared the effects of trigger point acupuncture with that of sham acupuncture treatments on pain and oral function in patients with temporomandibular disorders (TMDs). This 10-week study included 16 volunteers from an acupuncture school with complaints of chronic temporomandibular joint myofascial pain for at least 6 months. The participants were randomized to one of two groups, each recei...