Prolotherapy

Any pain involved with the injection will vary according to the structure or joint treated, the choice of solution, and the skill of the physician administering the injection. The treatment may result in a temporary increase in pain with mild swelling and stiffness. The discomfort usually passes in a few days and can be reduced with pain relievers such as Tylenol or other prescribed medication. Anti-inflammatory drugs, such as aspirin and ibuprofen, are not recommended because they suppresses the desired inflammatory healing process produced by the prolotherapy injections.

Areas/problems treated include:

• Low back or mid-back pain and sacro-iliac joint instability/dysfunction
• knee pain
• knee meniscal tear
• wrist or hand pain
• osteoarthritis
• shoulder pain, including rotator cuff tears
• elbow pain, including golfers or tennis elbow
• foot pain including, plantar fasciitis
• ankle pain or instability
• hypermobility, or other musculoskeletal pain or injury

Some areas or problems can be more challenging than others, and it is therefore important to be evaluated by a physician trained and experienced in this procedure so that an accurate assessment and treatment plan can be given.

Treatment intervals vary depending on the specific problem and severity of the area being treated, as well as the protocol of the physician. Typical intervals between treatments are every three to six weeks, with an average interval of once a month, for a total of four to ten treatments. However this can vary and may be more frequent, or take longer, depending on the condition being treated.

The anticipated rate of success depends on a number of variables, including the patient’s history and ability to heal, and the type of solution used. In patients with low back pain, studies have shown an 85% to 95% of patients experience improvement with prolotherapy (compared to studies showing a 52% improvement with back surgery). Many studies done over the years have shown a high success rate when Prolotherapy is used for various ligament, tendon or joint pain/injuries.

Prolotherapy has been used successfully as early as 500 B.C. when Roman soldiers with shoulder joint dislocations were treated with hot branding irons to help fuse the torn ligaments in the shoulder joint. Advances in medicines greatly improved on this process, and led to the modern techniques of strengthening the fibrous tissue and creating new, normal collagen, rather than producing scarring to fuse tissues.

Hippocrates described vein sclerotherapy around 400 B.C. using “slender instruments of iron” to treat varicose veins. Injection sclerotherapy of veins was first reported in 1623, and modern forms of injection sclerotherapy for varicose veins, hernias and hermorroids has been performed since the early 1900’s.

Earl Gedney, D.O., a well-known Orthopedist, decreased his surgical practice and began to inject joints in the 1940s and 1950s, and spent the rest of his life researching and publishing on the subject. Also, George Hackett, M.D., wrote a book on this injection therapy, with Gustav Hemwall, M.D., adding to that publication in the 1950’s. Both Gedney and Hackett’s work is still used today in training physicians. In the years since this early work, techniques and medications have advanced to move from a scarring or fusing effect to a strengthening, regenerative effect, which restores the weakened joint to its original level of stability, without loss of flexibility and function.

Advances in Regenerative Medicine have made the use of more advanced formulas possible, such as Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP) which contains growth factors, and autologous Adult Stem Cell sources, for even more enhanced healing.