Booster Dosing for Electrical Dry Needling in Knee Osteoarthritis

This course is written for licensed physical therapists who treat middle-aged and older adults with painful knee osteoarthritis and who want a plain-language account of what a large multi-center trial found when it compared different booster intervals for periosteal and intraarticular electrical dry needling. Physical therapist assistants and students may take the course for background knowledge; evaluation, diagnosis, and plan-of-care decisions remain with the supervising physical therapist.

Physical therapists in outpatient orthopedic and pain-management settings, with physical therapist assistants and students as secondary audiences for background knowledge.

Intended audience

Physical Therapy

Level

Intermediate

Delivery format

Online, asynchronous, self-paced course: interactive reading with audio or video, and a scored post-test.

Based on

This course is based on a single open-access research report:

Dunning J, Young I, Taylor N, Mourad F, Bliton P, Butts R, Escaloni J, Gorby P, Varghese R, Maselli F, Fernández-de-Las-Peñas C. Effect of dose interval of periosteal and intraarticular electrical dry needling boosters on pain and disability in patients with knee osteoarthritis: a multi-center randomized clinical trial. Physiotherapy Theory and Practice. Published online 2025. doi:10.1080/09593985.2025.2575837

The trial was approved by the ethics committee at Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Madrid, Spain, and was registered at ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT05365061) on May 4, 2022. The authors reported no funding for the work. Several authors are senior faculty of the fellowship program that teaches the needling protocol studied, a relationship disclosed in the published report.

Every claim, figure, and conclusion in this course traces to that report. No outside evidence has been added.

Up next: the podcast episode, which walks through the trial from recruitment to conclusions.

After completing this course, you will be able to:

1. Describe the population, the initial six-week needling course, and the three booster schedules that were compared in this multi-center randomized trial.
2. State what the trial reported at 30 weeks for knee pain, stiffness, physical function, related disability, and medication use across the three groups.
3. Explain the limitations the authors named, including the absence of a placebo-needling comparison and the lack of imaging-based grading of disease severity.

1. Start Here: course overview, objectives, and how to earn credit
2. Podcast: Monthly Boosters and Knee Osteoarthritis — the trial in plain language (about nine minutes)
3. Knee Osteoarthritis and the Question of Booster Dosing
4. Inside the Trial: A 23-Point Needling Protocol and Three Booster Schedules
5. What Changed Over 30 Weeks
6. Side Effects, Blind Spots, and What the Trial Could Not Show
7. Reading These Results Into Everyday Knee Osteoarthritis Care
8. Key Takeaways
9. Post-test and course evaluation

Quinn Millington, PT, DPT, ECS is the instructor of record: the licensed clinician who reviewed this course and signed off on it. The name and credentials print on the certificate.

Disclosures. This course was developed by The ConEd Solution, which has a financial interest in its sale. No outside funding or sponsorship was received. The instructor of record has no affiliation with the authors of the source publication or their institutions.

This course awards 0.5 contact hours (30 min). How you earn them:

1. Complete the course. Every lesson, in order.
2. Pass the post-test. Score 80% or higher. Retakes are allowed.
3. Complete the evaluation. A short form rating each learning objective and the course.
4. Download your certificate. It is issued on completion and stays available in My Account.

The episode time is its measured length. Reading, post-test and evaluation times are estimates.

This course is designed to satisfy the quality requirements state boards set for continuing education. Requirements vary by state, and confirming that a course fits your renewal is up to you. Each state’s own acceptance statement is in the credit panel on this page.

1. This course is based on a single open-access research report:
2. Dunning J, Young I, Taylor N, Mourad F, Bliton P, Butts R, Escaloni J, Gorby P, Varghese R, Maselli F, Fernández-de-Las-Peñas C. Effect of dose interval of periosteal and intraarticular electrical dry needling boosters on pain and disability in patients with knee osteoarthritis: a multi-center randomized clinical trial. Physiotherapy Theory and Practice. Published online 2025. doi:10.1080/09593985.2025.2575837
3. The trial was approved by the ethics committee at Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Madrid, Spain, and was registered at ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT05365061) on May 4, 2022. The authors reported no funding for the work. Several authors are senior faculty of the fellowship program that teaches the needling protocol studied, a relationship disclosed in the published report.
4. Every claim, figure, and conclusion in this course traces to that report. No outside evidence has been added.
5. Up next: the podcast episode, which walks through the trial from recruitment to conclusions.