Successful treatment of vulvodynia with dry needling using a specially designed needle: A case report

Jhun, Hyung Joon; Ahn, Kang; Kim, Young Jae

Case Report

General Article

Anesthesia and Pain Medicine 2012;7(1):22-24.
Published online January 31, 2012.

Successful treatment of vulvodynia with dry needling using a specially designed needle: A case report

Hyung Joon Jhun, Kang Ahn, Young Jae Kim

¹Center for Interventional Pain Management, Daejeon Woori Hospital, Daejeon, Korea.
²Chronic Pain Management Center, Cha Biomedical Center, Kangnam Cha Hospital, College of Medicine, CHA University, Seoul, Korea.
³Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine, Busan Paik Hospital, College of Medicine, Inje University, Busan, Korea. aneskyj@inje.ac.kr

Abstract

Vulvodynia is a chronic pain syndrome in female genitalia in the absence of visible infectious, inflammatory, or neoplastic findings or a clinically identifiable neurological disorder. We report a case of vulvodynia successfully treated with dry needling using a specially designed round needle (Ahn's needle). A 50-year-old woman was seen with 20-year-history of left-sided vulvar pain in the absence of infectious, inflammatory, neoplastic, or neurological disorder. We diagnosed her condition as vulvodynia and conducted dry needling using an Ahn's needle. Dry needling was performed along left upper and middle labiocrural fold. She reported 50% improvement of vulvodynia after the first treatment and 100% improvement after the second treatment. She remained symptom free 9 months after treatment. Our report suggests that dry needling using an Ahn's needle have clinical significance in managing vulvodynia.

Key Words: Female, Genitalia, Pain, Vulvodynia