AltPoint Percutaneous Needle Electrolysis
in Lansing, Michigan

Acupuncture and dry needling are point-based techniques that work by inserting a thin needle into a tissue or trigger point — no imaging, no electric current. AltPoint percutaneous needle electrolysis is something different in kind: the needle is placed under live ultrasound guidance directly into a specific structure Dr. Eng has identified on the screen, and a controlled galvanic current is then delivered through the needle to that exact target. The current is what does the clinical work; the ultrasound is what makes the placement precise. It is a procedure rather than a points-based therapy.

There is a sensation during current delivery — most patients describe it as a brief, deep cramp or pulling at the target structure that builds for a few seconds and then quickly subsides. It is uncomfortable rather than sharp, and Dr. Eng controls the dose and the timing throughout. People with very high needle aversion sometimes find it not a fit; most people tolerate it without difficulty.

PNE is usually delivered as a short course rather than a single visit — most common protocols run somewhere in the range of four to eight sessions spaced about a week apart, with the exact number depending on the structure being treated, how chronic the issue is, and how the tissue responds along the way. Dr. Eng will outline the cadence after she visualizes the target on ultrasound at the first visit.

No. AltPoint can be a useful non-surgical option to try first in carefully selected chronic tendon, ligament, and scar-tissue cases — and many patients do avoid surgery this way — but the procedure is not a guarantee, and some cases genuinely do require surgical management. Dr. Eng will tell you honestly if she thinks your situation is one of them, and she will refer you for surgical evaluation when that is the right call. The honesty about that line is part of why patients trust the work she does in this category.

Active infection or open wound at the planned needle site, certain metallic implants in close proximity to the target structure, anticoagulant medication that has not been cleared with your prescribing physician, current pregnancy, and severe needle phobia are the most common reasons Dr. Eng will not perform AltPoint at a given visit. Each first-time patient walks through a screening conversation at intake — medications, prior procedures near the target, imaging history — so contraindications are caught well before the needle ever comes out.

Both are used for chronic tendon and soft-tissue problems, but they work through different mechanisms and at different depths. Shockwave delivers acoustic energy through the skin to a region of tissue; AltPoint delivers galvanic current through a needle to a specific point inside a structure visualized on ultrasound. They are complementary rather than redundant — Dr. Eng often sequences them together in a protocol, and the published clinical literature pairs them often.