Rumailah Hospital’s Physiotherapy Department recently organised a ‘Dry Needling Workshop’ for clinical physiotherapists to master dry needling in addition  to existing manual physical therapy interventions for the treatment of myofascial pain. 
The course was conducted by the South Africa-based company, Optimal Dry Needling Solutions (ODNS) Institute, the largest and most well established dry needling education group in the world.
Around 31 HMC physiotherapists took part in the six-day course which featured topics at foundation and advanced levels about dry needling concepts. 
This was followed by an examination with ODNS certification which was accredited by the Health Professions Council - South Africa. Delegates completing the course were awarded with 42 continuing professional development credit points from the Qatar Council of Healthcare Practitioners.  
“Dry needling is a technique that physical therapists use to treat myofascial pain which is a chronic pain disorder. The technique uses a dry needle, one without medication or injection, inserted through the skin into areas of the muscle, known as trigger points. With myofascial pain syndrome, pressure on sensitive points in the muscles (trigger points) causes pain in seemingly unrelated parts of the body. This is called referred pain,” explained Dr Noora  al-Mudahka, chief of physiotherapy at Rumailah Hospital.
She said the concept of dry needling was popularised by Dr Peter Baldry  in the early 1980s as a safer approach to needling certain difficult muscles. Dry needling is a neurophysiological evidence-based treatment technique.
“This course developed physiotherapists into skilled professionals in using dry needling to alleviate pain and improve clinical outcomes. The course provided an opportunity for qualified physiotherapists to be trained and licensed to use dry needling to assist in improving treatment effectiveness and patient satisfaction,” said Ayman Raafat, supervisor, Male Outpatient Physiotherapy at Rumailah Hospital.




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