Motor Points & Dequervain’s Tenosynovitis – NYC

by Jeffrey Medina| September 30, 2024

Motor Points and De Quervain’s Tenosynovitis

What are motor points?

Specific regions in the body where the muscles and nerve innervates.  When treated a localized twitch response (muscle contraction) occurs.

Motor point functions:

1) activate inhibited (weak) muscles and enable the inhibited muscle to fire properly

2) strengthen the muscles

3) reset muscle fibers

4) promote blood circulation

Difference  between motor points and trigger points

Motor points have specific locations based on nerve pathways, trigger points are tight bands in muscles when pressed they create referral pain patterns.  Trigger points can be identified anywhere along the course of a muscle.

Both motor points and trigger points will twitch when treated.  Both motor and trigger points are used in orthopedic style acupuncture commonly called dry needling.

De Quervain’s tenosynovitis is an inflammatory condition involving the tendons at the base of the thumb.  People may experience difficulties with movement of the thumbs or have weakness with grasping or pinching objects.  It is caused by repetitive motion and overuse.  If not treated the pain and discomfort can spread along the forearm.

Motor points in the treatment of Dequervain’s tenosynovitis:

Dequervain’s tenosynovitis is the inflammation of the tendons extensor pollicis brevis and abductor pollicis longus.

Extensor pollicis brevis – 4 inches from the wrist located slightly radially to sj8

Abductor pollicis longus – 5 inches from the wrist along the large intestine channel.  Slightly ulnar to LI 7.

In the video above we can observe visible activation of these muscles causing movement in the thumb.  This will help strengthen the muscles and reduce inflammation along the tendons through contraction and relaxation of the muscles.

Treatment Frequency

Tendon issues can be very stubborn and generally take longer to resolve because of the lack of blood supply to these structures.  If the patient has moderate to severe pain, 2-3 acupuncture treatments per week for 6 sessions followed by re-evaluation is the standard course of treatment.