SYNVISC Injections Don't Work!
Last year we read front line newspaper articles claiming that arthroscopy for arthritis didn’t work and now we read that synvisc injections don’t work (JAMA 2003;290:3115-3121). What a shock! Anyone who treats arthritis patients could have told you that!
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Synvisc shots generally run about $1000-$1500 for each 3 shot session, or at least that is what my patients tell me they are charged. It is amazing that the government pays for treatments like arthroscopy and synvisc injections for arthritis. They just don’t work. Therapies that do work, like glucosamine nutritional supplements, glucosamine injections, and Prolotherapy, they won’t pay for. Do you see the problem here?
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Conceptually a third grader could tell you that arthroscopy for arthritis wouldn’t work. Scraping bone and taking out tissue to make a joint weaker is just not going to get rid of pain long term, how could it? Injecting a synthetic, artificial, so-called ‘joint cushioner’ makes no sense either.
In the eight or so years that synvisc has been out, I have not had even one person tell me that it provided any significant pain relief. Yet everyday in that same eight year period I have patients with arthritis receive Prolotherapy and get considerable pain relief. Why would this be?
Prolotherapy is the only treatment that I know of that gets at the root cause of arthritis: ligament injury. To stop the arthritic process the ligaments of the joint need to be strengthened. As a side effect of Prolotherapy, other structures around the joint get strengthened, just as the muscles, tendons and cartilage. If you or a loved one has arthritis, start receiving treatments that work, such as Prolotherapy.
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PROLOTHERAPY FOR POST-BIOPSY PAIN SYNDROME
Ross A. Hauser, M.D.
“Doc, I don’t know if you can help me. I had mantle cell lymphoma which so far is in remission. What I am left with is terrible pain where I had my bone marrow biopsy.” On physical examination this patient had significant pain over the sacroiliac joint and some tenderness around the ischial tuberosity areas. Another recent patient came in with terrible pain over the site where a bone graft was taken for a back fusion operation. The main issue the patients had was “will Prolotherapy help?”
Prolotherapy helps most chronic pain. In the first example above the patient had evidence of sacroiliac and sacrotuberous ligament injury. Prolotherapy is great for these conditions. In the second example there was spot tenderness over a previous bone graft site. Prolotherapy in this instance to stimulate periosteal and soft tissue attachments to the area was all that was needed to alleviate her chronic pain.
Prolotherapy gets its name because it stimulates cells to proliferate at the ligament or soft tissue junction with the bone. The top of the bone is called the periosteum. This is a very sensitive area that does not always heal after procedures such as bone marrow aspirations or after bone grafts are taken. Prolotherapy is a terrific treatment for such conditions. By putting extra anesthetic (lidocaine or procaine) in the solution the person often feels immediate relief. This gives the patient and the Prolotherapist confidence that the site of the biopsy is indeed the cause of the pain. The other fact is that since Prolotherapy caused immediate relief of the pain there is a good chance that permanent pain relief is just a few Prolotherapy sessions away.
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WHY WE DON'T RELY ON MRIs
It is prudent for a patient to consider why he or she is getting an MRI. If a patient wants to get surgery then go ahead and get an MRI. There is almost no other reason to get one. MRI’s cannot tell a person what is causing their pain, it only confirms what is known by the history and physical examination. Most MRI findings have nothing to do with why the person has pain and is thus the reason for most ‘failed surgery syndromes.’ Almost all people even after surgery are not pain free. Surgery for pain in the best case scenario should be done only after all of the conservative treatments have been tried and failed. This includes Prolotherapy!
Degenerated joints, including degenerated or herniated discs, signify ligament laxity. Ligament laxity or vertebral instabilities are the reason that discs become degenerated. A herniated disc by definition means the nucleus pulposis (gelatin part of the disc) has herniated through the annulus fibrosis, which is ligamentous tissue. Caring Medical has an 80%+ success rate of helping people with acute and chronic disc herniations and degenerated discs resolve their pain and disability without surgery. For a person in relatively good shape and immune function (good healing ability) the likelihood of success is even higher. Prolotherapy by stimulating the ligaments to heal, helps the vertebral segment become stabilized and thus eliminates the reason for the degenerated disc.
The patient with an ‘MRI finding’ is at great risk for getting offered the ‘knife treatment.’ Once an athlete receives the ‘knife treatment’ the anatomy in that particular region will never be the same. Arthroscopy, in particular, is one of the fastest way an athlete can get arthritis. By shaving away cartilage and meniscal tissue during the arthroscopy, the arthritic process is accelerated. Likewise, when a surgeon removes disc tissue the segments above and below that area are at risk to undergo proliferative arthritis.
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