A 35-year-old woman felt a sharp pain beneath her shoulder blade during a dry needling session for muscle pain. Her pneumothorax, or partially collapsed lung, was not confirmed until she went to an emergency department three days later.
Her case, published in Cureus in December 2024, is one of a string of reports showing that needles aimed at muscle, skin or breast tissue can occasionally pierce the thin lining around the lung and let air leak into the chest. What stands out across these reports is timing: the telltale symptoms do not always appear on the treatment table.
