Effectiveness of Dry Needling and STM on Pain Management for Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction (ACLR)

September 17, 2025 updated by: Jamie Morris, Keller Army Community Hospital

The Effectiveness of Dry Needling and Soft Tissue Mobilization in the Management of Pain Post Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) Reconstruction: A Randomized Controlled Trial

The purpose of this study is to determine if dry needling (DN) and soft tissue mobilization (STM) is superior to standard treatment protocol for affecting pain, pain medication usage and measurements of range of motion (ROM) after ACL reconstruction surgery compared to a standard treatment protocol. Measurements of pain, pain medication usage, lower extremity functional scale (LEFS) and ROM will be taken day 2 post op and 1 week, 2 weeks, 3 weeks, and 4 weeks post op. It is hypothesized that the inclusion of DN and STM will acutely decrease the demand for pain medication and improve objective measurements when compared to a standard treatment protocol. Findings will potentially lead to insights as to the benefit of applying these interventions to help decrease the demand for pain medication post-surgery.

Study Overview

Status

Withdrawn

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Study Type

Interventional

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • United States
    • New York
      • West Point, New York, United States, 10996
        • Keller Army Community Hospital

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

18 years to 40 years (Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Age 18-40 Department of Defense( DOD) beneficiaries (17 if Cadet)
  • Scheduled for ACL Reconstruction Surgery

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Self-Reported Pregnancy
  • History of blood borne pathogens/infectious disease/active infection/metal allergy
  • Bleeding disorders or currently taking anti-coagulant medications
  • Participants who are not fluent in English

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Treatment
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Factorial Assignment
  • Masking: Single

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
No Intervention: control group Standard ACL protocol
This group will receive the standard ACL protocol rehab
Experimental: Dry needling and STM group
This group will also receive the standard ACL protocol in addition to STM and DN
Other: Dry needling and STM
dry needling and soft tissue mobilization

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Numerical pain rating scale
Time Frame: change from baseline, 2 days post-op, 1 week, 2 week, 3 week, 4 week
validated outcome measure for pain ranging from 0-10
change from baseline, 2 days post-op, 1 week, 2 week, 3 week, 4 week

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Lower extremity functional scale
Time Frame: change from baseline, 2 days post-op, 1 week, 2 week, 3 week, 4 week
validated measure to assess disability and function for the lower extremity on a scale of 0-80
change from baseline, 2 days post-op, 1 week, 2 week, 3 week, 4 week
Global rate of change
Time Frame: change from baseline, 2 days post-op, 1 week, 2 week, 3 week, 4 week
validated measure of self reported overall change in injury or condition ranging from -7 to 7
change from baseline, 2 days post-op, 1 week, 2 week, 3 week, 4 week
knee range of motion
Time Frame: change from baseline, 2 days post-op, 1 week, 2 week, 3 week, 4 week
measured with goniometer
change from baseline, 2 days post-op, 1 week, 2 week, 3 week, 4 week

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Keller Army Community Hospital

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

June 1, 2018

Primary Completion (Actual)

June 1, 2019

Study Completion (Actual)

June 1, 2019

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

March 30, 2018

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

April 23, 2018

First Posted (Actual)

April 24, 2018

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimated)

September 23, 2025

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

September 17, 2025

Last Verified

April 1, 2018

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 18KACH002

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

UNDECIDED

IPD Plan Description

No Protected Health Information (PHI) or Personally Identifiable Information (PII) data will be share however may share outcome measures for data analysis based on subject identification.

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

product manufactured in and exported from the U.S.

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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