Letters to the Editor
Why Is Aspirin a Contraindication for Trigger-Point Injections?
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Am Fam Physician. 2003 Jan 1;67(1):32.
to the editor: In the article entitled, “Trigger Points: Diagnosis and Management,”1 Table 3 lists aspirin therapy as a contraindication to trigger-point injections. Given the current recommendations for aspirin therapy to prevent coronary artery disease events, large portions of the adult population in the United States are currently taking or should be taking aspirin on a regular basis. If aspirin therapy is truly a contraindication to trigger-point injections, then trigger-point injections would be off limits to a large percentage of the adult population.
The only information presented in the article to support this contraindication is the citation of two textbook chapters.2,3 What evidence, if any, indicates that trigger-point injections are dangerous to patients taking aspirin?
1. Alvarez DJ, Rockwell PG. Trigger points: diagnosis and management. Am Fam Physician. 2002;65:653–60.
2. Simons DG, Travell JG, Simons LS. Travell & Simons' Myofascial pain and dysfunction: the trigger point manual. 2d ed. Baltimore: Williams and Wilkins, 1999:94–173.
3. Ruoff GE. Technique of trigger point injection. In: Pfenninger JL, Fowler GC, eds. Procedures for primary care physicians. St. Louis: Mosby, 1994:164–7.
editor's note:A copy of this letter was sent to the author of “Trigger Points: Diagnosis and Management,” who declined to reply.
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