Electromyographic Activity of Cervical Muscles in Patients with Neck Pain and Changes After Dry Needling: A Narrative Review.

Neck pain can be associated with specific conditions, such as neurological disorders, vascular or inflammatory diseases, fractures, herniated discs, etc. However, the majority of neck pain cases cannot be attributed to a specific cause. The objective of this review is to describe the muscle dysfunctions associated with neck pain, as measured by electromyography, and to determine the effectiveness of dry needling in improving these muscular dysfunctions. The research was conducted using the following databases: PubMed, Alcorze, and Google Scholar. The next conclusions have been extracted after the revision of the 65 selected manuscripts. The current scientific evidence supports electromyographic pathological findings in individuals with chronic neck pain, especially during general upper limb movement, repetitive work, violin playing, cervical force, and cervical movement tasks. Dry needling applied to an active myofascial trigger point in the upper trapezius can be suggested as an intervention to enhance the performance in the cranio-cervical flexion. Dry needling applied to latent myofascial trigger points in the upper trapezius after typing tasks in healthy subjects resulted in decreased upper trapezius activity and fatigue in the short term. In women with trapezius myalgia, dry needling applied to the upper trapezius led to a lower increase in electromyography activity compared to no intervention.