In September 2012, the Mississippi Attorney General issued a legal opinion stating that « the Physiotherapy Board acted within its authority in promulgating the proposed rule, including the use of needles for therapeutic treatment as a technique in the legal definition of the practice of physical therapy. It`s no different at all. Dry needling is performed with an acupuncture needle to pierce the skin to the muscle to release the trigger point. This is acupuncture. On May 17, 2017, the Oregon Attorney General issued a statement that dry needling is not the responsibility of a licensed Oregon physical therapist. After this realization, doctors began injecting trigger points with local anesthetics or other substances to relieve pain (wet needles). Doctors in the 1940s, including Dr. Janet Travell studied this type of pain and its clinical implications in more detail and eventually found that trigger points are the source of pain for many musculoskeletal pain problems. Research conducted in 1949 showed that heart pain can have a somatic component caused by trigger points. By 1951, Dr.
Travell and Dr. Seymour Rinzler had enough information about trigger points and reference models to illustrate many causes of musculoskeletal pain. Ms. Kapustina learned dry needle procedures from Dr. Jan Dommerholt, founder and CEO of Bethesda Physiocare, who was the first physical therapist in the United States to teach dry needle and trigger point injection techniques to health care providers. Dry needling can cause pain after needling as a result of neuromuscular stimulation that occurs during treatment. Most patients recover from pain within 48 to 72 hours and many patients describe it as similar to exercise pain. Dr. Kalika learned about dry needling from its inventor, Dr.
Karel Lewit MD, while working with him at the Prague Motel Hospital. In upstate New York, it is currently illegal for anyone other than an acupuncturist to perform trigger point needles or « dry needles, » except for a licensed doctor who would inject a solution into your body with the trigger point injection anyway. In New York City, only licensed acupuncturists (acupuncturists with more than 2500 hours of acupuncture-specific training) and certified acupuncturists (physicians with 300 hours of acupuncture-specific training) are allowed to use acupuncture needles and perform dry needles. In April 2012, the Alaska Physical Therapy and Occupational Therapy Board approved dry needling by physiotherapists. Iowa – AuthorizedThe 14th. In January 2016, the Iowa Board of Physical and Occupational Therapy issued a decision on the application for a declaratory order, finding that dry needling falls within the practice of physical therapy as defined in Section 148A.1(1)(b) of the Iowa Code. On January 10, 2018, the Iowa Court of Appeals issued a decision upholding the Iowa Board of Physical and Occupational Therapy`s declaratory order that dry needling is physical therapy. The board issued its order in response to a petition filed by the Iowa Association of Oriental Medicine and Acupuncture in August 2015. APTA and the Iowa Branch requested an intervention and made a joint submission to the Commission. The Executive Council Order, issued in January 2016, stated that dry needling was a « rehabilitation procedure » within the meaning of the definition of physiotherapy in the Practice Act. The Acupuncture Association applied to the District Court for judicial review. The Iowa chapter intervened on the side of the council.
In October 2016, the District Court upheld the Chamber`s declaratory decision. The Acupuncture Association then appealed, which the Iowa Supreme Court referred to the Iowa Court of Appeals. The Iowa Branch intervened with the Commission and filed a factum. The Court of Appeal held a hearing on December 12, 2017 during which APTA General Counsel Jack Bennett argued on behalf of the section. In the view of the Court of Appeal, it was noted that the standard of judicial review with respect to the House was very respectful. The court concluded: « The board generally has the right to apply its expertise in the field of physiotherapy to determine which matters fall within the scope of practice. Respecting the committee`s expertise in the field of physiotherapy, we conclude that the practice of dry needling falls within the definition of physiotherapy, was not irrational, illogical or completely unjustified. « The Court of Appeals` decision is not necessarily the end of the case, because the Acupuncture Association has seven days to ask the Court of Appeals for a new hearing, and it has twenty days to ask the Iowa Supreme Court for a new review of the case.
