What is Prolotherapy?
Prolotherapy is short for proliferation therapy, a nonsurgical way to treat lower back pain, tendinitis, osteoarthritis and some sports injuries. These injections are made up of natural substances as well as anesthetics to reduce the discomfort of the procedure. Injection formulas contain naturally occurring substances such dextrose (a 10-chain sugar derived from corn), saline, Sarapin (an extract from the pitcher plant), as well as numbing agents like Ropivacaine. The prolotherapy injection causes localized inflammation to essentially “trick” the body to jump-start and optimize the natural healing process to repair and rebuild damaged tissue such as ligaments, tendons, joints, and muscles. With the prolotherapy injection’s initiation, the body creates new, stronger tissue over damaged areas. Structures such as ligaments (that connect bones) and tendons (that attach muscles to bones) as well as joint cartilage are often a major source of pain and disability because of their poor healing ability in adults; Prolotherapy works by directing growth factors in the blood via the localized inflammation to damaged connective tissue to effect more efficient repair than would occur if left alone.
What is the Prolotherapy procedure?
Prolotherapy injection procedures are similar to other injections commonly seen in medicine . Before the Prolotherapy solution is administered, injections of an anesthetic under the skin with a small, thin needle will be given to decrease the discomfort of the procedure. Once the numbing agent is working, a small needle is injected into the tissues that require treatment (in many cases, at the attachment sites of ligaments and tendons to bone). Depending on the area of the body and severity of the damaged area a series of injections may be needed, typically about 3 to 4 weeks apart. The number of sessions needed can be as few as one or two or as many as six to eight. After the procedure, patients are typically prescribed certain pain medications to help with the post injection discomfort, and are recommended to use the MEAT (Movement, Exercise, Analgesia, and Treatment) protocol, as the healing process continues.
Why choose Prolotherapy?
Vitality Medical Centers offers this alternative procedure to patients who wish to avoid surgeries and to decrease or get off of pain medications, and aid in helping reduce the disability associated with painful musculoskeletal problems. Some of the conditions that may be treated include (but are not limited to): tennis elbow, plantar fasciitis, joint osteoarthritis, chronic neck or back pain, pelvic pain, meniscal tears and many other musculoskeletal ailments. Most doctors practicing Prolotherapy concur that 80 % to 90% of patients report positive results and less discomfort overall. Modern Prolotherapy has been in existence for over 75 years and has treated everyday people, professional athletes, even a former Surgeon General of the United States, who afterwards recommended it to his colleagues. The end result is a healthier patient on fewer medications, which translates to lower risk of side effects and physician related complications, the ability to avoid more painful, riskier invasive procedures, and ultimately a better quality of life!
