3. What do you inject?
In most cases I inject Platelet rich plasma(SDP/RDP), Dextrose (pharmaceutical grade sugar water), and lidocaine, a numbing medicine.
4. Does it hurt?
Prior to injection, most parts of the skin are numbed with a cold spray so that the patient doesn’t feel the needle insertion very much, if at all.
5. What will it be like after a Prolotherapy treatment?
After a treatment, some patients feel stiffness for a short while, which can last up to 24 hours, or occasionally more. I have done sports after my Prolotherapy treatments without difficulty (although I advise my patients to rest the area till the next visit, and do cross-training if exercise is an important aspect of their life). Some patients are immediately “healed” while many feel nothing during the first week after their procedure.
6. How many treatments do I need?
Every patient is different. Every injury or pain is different. And it is difficult to forecast how many treatments will be needed. Wrists, ankles, and knees usually heal in about 2-4 treatments. Backs and necks often take twice as long. The speed of healing is also related to how patients take care of themselves.
7. What percentage of patients feel better after Prolotherapy?
Every Prolotherapist I have met concurs that about 80-90% of their patients feel better after treatments.
8. Are there any things patients can do to prolong or stop the healing process with Prolotherapy?
There are three things that can inhibit healing.
Patients who over-exercise the healing joint or body part.
Taking anti-inflammatory drugs.
Giving up and stopping therapy prior to complete healing.
9. Why do we perform Prolotherapy instead of surgery?
There are several reasons why prolotherapy treatments are used instead of surgery:
The two procedures are exact opposites of each other. Prolotherapy naturally stimulates the body to produce more collagen and rejuvenate an area to reduce or eliminate pain. Surgery is most often used to cut tissue out of the body, and eventually destabilize the tissue.
Prolotherapy in most cases has little to no side effects, whereas surgery has a very high risk potential.
Prolotherapy is relatively inexpensive. Surgery is extremely expensive.
There is no rehabilitation or time missed from work with Prolotherapy. Surgery often requires months of rehabilitation and time off work.
Prolotherapy can be performed in our office. Surgery must be performed in a hospital or outpatient setting.
No one needs to take care of you or drive you home after Prolotherapy. Surgery requires a caregiver.
Prolotherapy is natural and requires no drugs or anesthetic. Surgery requires both.
Studies now show that fake knee surgeries work as well as real knee surgeries (so why have the real surgery). From an article by Donald Murphy…..The failure rate of surgery for low back pain is very high. On average, about 53 percent of all L5-S1 disc surgeries fail to produce relief of symptoms. Quite frequently, the patient ends up in worse shape than before the operation.
10. How quickly do patients feel better after Prolotherapy?
Like most medical treatments, patients have different reactions to prolotherapy:
Some patients feel better immediately.
Some patients feel the same after one or several procedures.
Some patients feel better after a nondescript period of time.
Some patients feel no better until a series of injections are completed.
11. Once I am healed by Prolotherapy, will that healing last forever?
This is sort of a trick question. Most people are born pain-free, and suffer injuries, arthritis, or overuse injuries over time. In other words, most people are “perfect” when they are born. Since we can continue to “wear out” or be reinjured, it is impossible to predict how long your healing will last. Sometimes patients come back a year or more later for a “booster” procedure in the same area. It really depends how well you take care of yourself. Many patients, including myself, have had a dozen or more pain-free years.
12. Can Prolotherapy heal torn tendons or ligaments?
I have treated countless patients with rotator cuff tears in the shoulder, meniscal tears in the knee, or fibrocartilage tears in the wrist. Most of them have healed.
Rarely will a patient have a follow-up MRI of the area once the pain is gone (why spend the money). This did occur recently with a college-level golfer from one of the top golf teams in the country, whose wrist was ready for surgery. I performed Prolotherapy on his wrist and his orthopedic surgeon ordered an MRI since he became pain-free under my care, and the ortho wanted to know if the golfer was ready to compete again. The ortho said this was the first tear of this type that he had ever seen heal. I got a call from my patient as he walked off the course from his first tournament at Riviera Golf Club in Los Angeles, thanking me for his “miracle”.
There is a study showing that Prolotherapy can tighten loose knees from anterior cruciate ligament laxity, and reduce or eliminate the pain.
