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Before You Have Joint Replacement Surgery, Read This...

by Dr. Julian Whitaker

Published 02/03/09

How Prolotherapy Works

A course of prolotherapy involves weekly injections in the affected area with a very small needle. There may be a minor ache in the area for up to three days thereafter. The usual course is three to six months of three to four injections per month. Some people require as little as six to eight weeks, and some as long as a year. Costs vary, but an average course for low back pain, for example, might run about $2,500. A few insurance companies even reimburse.

Even though you may not have heard of it before, prolotherapy is not new; it's been around since 1937. Over a half million people have benefitted from it, and there are good scientific studies supporting its use. In a 1987 study, 81 patients with chronic low back pain of ten years' duration were randomly split into two treatment groups. Forty received the therapy, along with manipulation, while 41 received saline placebo injections. Those receiving the reconstructive therapy had substantially greater improvement at one, three, and six months. In fact, there was a more than 50 percent improvement in 35 of 40 who received the therapy, versus only 16 of the 41 who did not.

Recommendations

I would highly recommend this therapy for anyone whose pain or disability has reached the level where a surgical procedure is suggested. I also think you should try it if you've had surgery but still have pain and disability. This therapy, in conjunction with other recommendations for chronic disc and joint pain I mentioned above, can be extremely beneficial in such cases.

There are approximately 200 medical and osteopathic physicians who perform prolotherapy nationwide. For more information and doctors in your area, call the American Association of Orthopedic Medicine at 800-992-2063 or www.aaomed.org.

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