COMPARATIVE EFFECTS OF DRY NEEDLING AND NEURAL MOBILIZATION ON PAIN, STRENGTH AND RANGE OF MOTION IN PATIENTS WITH GOLFER’S ELBOW

Background: Golfer’s elbow, or medial epicondylitis, is a tendinopathy affecting the common flexor tendon origin at the medial epicondyle of the humerus. It commonly results from repetitive gripping, wrist flexion, and forearm pronation, leading to pain, reduced grip strength, and restricted upper-limb movement. Dry needling and neural mobilization are used in physiotherapy practice, but their comparative effects on pain, strength, and range of motion in golfer’s elbow require further clinical evaluation. Objective: To compare the effects of dry needling and neural mobilization on pain intensity, strength, and range of motion in patients with golfer’s elbow. Methods: A randomized clinical trial was conducted at Ali Fatima Hospital, Lahore, and Pakistan Rugby Academy, Lahore, over nine months. Twenty-six patients with golfer’s elbow were included and allocated into two groups: dry needling and neural mobilization, with 13 participants in each group. Pain intensity was assessed using the Numeric Pain Rating Scale, grip strength was measured using a digital hand dynamometer, and range of motion was assessed using a goniometer. Data were analyzed using parametric tests after confirmation of normality through the Shapiro–Wilk test. Results: The mean age of participants was 34.62 ± 5.91 years. Overall pain decreased from 7.00 ± 1.81 to 3.46 ± 1.88, while grip strength improved from 21.73 ± 3.88 to 25.81 ± 4.37. Significant improvements were also observed in elbow flexion, elbow extension deficit, wrist flexion, and wrist extension (p < 0.01). At baseline, neural mobilization had higher pain scores than dry needling (8.08 ± 1.55 vs 5.92 ± 1.38, p = 0.001). Post-treatment, neural mobilization showed significantly lower pain (p = 0.004), higher strength (p = 0.004), greater elbow flexion (p = 0.033), lower elbow extension deficit (p = 0.004), better wrist flexion (p = 0.037), and better wrist extension (p = 0.017). Conclusion: Both interventions improved pain, strength, and range of motion in golfer’s elbow; however, neural mobilization produced greater overall clinical improvement. The findings support neural mobilization as a useful physiotherapy approach for restoring upper-limb function in patients with medial elbow pain. Keywords: Dry Needling; Elbow Joint; Muscle Strength; Pain Measurement; Physical Therapy Modalities; Range of Motion, Articular; Tendinopathy.