Letters to the Editor - American Family Physician

January 1, 2003 Table of Contents

Letters to the Editor

Why Is Aspirin a Contraindication for Trigger-Point Injections?

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?

BARRY D. WEISS, M.D.

University of Arizona College of Medicine

1450 North Cherry

Tucson, AZ 85719

REFERENCES

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.

�

Send letters to Kenneth W. Lin, MD, Associate Deputy Editor for AFP Online, e-mail: afplet@aafp.org, or 11400 Tomahawk Creek Pkwy., Leawood, KS 66211-2680.

Please include your complete address, e-mail address, telephone number, and fax number. Letters should be fewer than 500 words and limited to six references, one table or figure, and three authors.

Letters submitted for publication in AFP must not be submitted to any other publication. Possible conflicts of interest must be disclosed at time of submission. Submission of a letter will be construed as granting the American Academy of Family Physicians permission to publish the letter in any of its publications in any form. The editors may edit letters to meet style and space requirements.

Copyright � 2003 by the American Academy of Family Physicians.
This content is owned by the AAFP. A person viewing it online may make one printout of the material and may use that printout only for his or her personal, non-commercial reference. This material may not otherwise be downloaded, copied, printed, stored, transmitted or reproduced in any medium, whether now known or later invented, except as authorized in writing by the AAFP. Contact afpserv@aafp.org for copyright questions and/or permission requests.