Dr. Manuel Cusi, Sydney School of Medicine (Australia) studied 25 patients in his private practice from April 2004 to July 2007. The objective of the study was to determine the effectiveness of Prolotherapy in the treatment of deficient load transfer of the SI joint.
Three injections of hypertonic dextrose solution were provided into the dorsal interosseous ligament of the affected SI joint under CT control, at 6 week intervals.
The authors concluded that 76% of the patients who completed a 3-month follow-up visit, 76% at 12 month follow-up, and 32% at 24 months – showed positive clinical outcomes.
- Dr Manuel F Cusi, Sydney School of Medicine, University of Notre Dame, 160 Oxford Street, Darlinghurst, Sydney 2010, New South Wales, Australia; manuel.cusi@gmail.com
- Accepted 26 March 2008
- Published Online First 9 April 2008
Prolotherapy stimulates the body to repair the painful area. For the patient who has localized areas of pain or the person who has had a recent injury from an accident, Prolotherapy is a very effective treatment to strengthen those specific areas and eliminate the pain. Realize, however, that Prolotherapy starts the growth of new healthy, strong tissue. Your body—your own immune system—grows the tissue. For the person who has terrible digestion, chronic fatigue, irritable bladder; and a host of other chronic nutritional, hormonal, allergic problems, these deficiencies and illnesses should be corrected so the body will be able to respond to Prolotherapy.
The ideal Prolotherapy candidate has the following:
1. Pain originating from a ligament or tendon
2. Strong immune system
3. Willingness to improve and receive follow-up visits
4. Healthy diet
5. Positive mental outlook
For Arthritis and Fibromyalgia
Most people who suffer from arthritis and Fibromyalgia have a portion of their pain or all of their pain from ligament and tendon injury. Most muscle spasms occur because the underlying ligaments are weakened and the muscles spasm to stabilize the joints, as occurs in Fibromyalgia. The same can be said for arthritis except the body is stabilizing the joints in this condition by overgrowing bone. This overgrowth of bone is called arthritis.
Prolotherapy allows the stabilizing of joints by causing a strengthening of ligaments, thereby eliminating the muscle spasms of Fibromyalgia and the need for the body to overgrow bones occurs in arthritis.
When Prolotherapy Does Not Work
The most common reasons why a person may not attain 100 percent improvement with Prolotherapy are the following:
1. Inadequate (depressed) immune system
2. Nutritional deficiencies
3. Hormonal deficiencies
4. Other factors causing the pain that are not being addressed
5. Correct area being treated but repair not yet complete
6. Wrong area being treated
This last fact is often overlooked. A good example of this relates to patients with lower back pain. All that is typically needed for curing back pain is for the patients to receive Prolotherapy to the lower back at the sacroiliac joints. In a small percentage of the people, the sacroiliac joint remains weakened because the pelvic joint in the front (pubic symphysis) also needs to be treated. The sacroiliac ligaments, in this instance, will only maintain the strength that is attained with Prolotherapy if the pubic symphysis is also treated.
When back pain is due to loose ligaments, a very characteristic behavior of pain is observed. A patient with loose ligaments of the lumbar spine or pelvis will experience recurring dysfunctions at the intervertebral joint (degenerative disc and possible nerve compression), at the facet joints (locking in flexion or extension), and at the sacroiliac joints. In other words, the low back pain can be due to an unstable disc problem, facet joint locking, or sacroiliac dysfunction.
For more information on back pain articles and to view Prolotherapy to the low back, click here.
For back pain research on using Prolotherapy for treatment of back pain, see the Journal of Prolotherapy 1:3 where a number of authors presented their work.
To read the Hauser study in detail (Dextrose Prolotherapy for Unresolved Low Back Pain: A Retrospective Case Series Study,) click here.
