Video Transcription

What is Prolotherapy and is it dangerous?

The scientific definition of Prolotherapy is the rehabilitation of an incompetent structure, such as a ligament or tendon. I think a better definition is Prolotherapy stimulates the body to repair painful areas. Specifically, it’s an injection technique where you use mostly natural substances to stimulate the body to repair painful areas. The areas that respond very well to Prolotherapy are injuries to soft tissue, such as ligaments, tendons, meniscus, and labral tissue, but, we’ve also found that degenerative arthritis, cartilage degeneration, or cartilage injury in the knee, hip, or ankle typically responds very well to Prolotherapy treatments.

Are there dangers to Prolotherapy?

Prolotherapy is a very safe procedure. In the various books that I’ve written, sometimes I’ll mention that I think Prolotherapy is safer than taking an anti-inflammatory everyday. I’ve also commented that I think driving through Chicago traffic to get to Caring Medical in Oak Park, IL, is more dangerous than Prolotherapy. There is a small risk of infection from Prolotherapy injections so we, at Caring Medical, clean the skin with antibiotic solution and obviously I would recommend people go to a very skilled Prolotherapy doctor because the Prolotherapy doctor is using needles to do the various injections and you want to make sure the Prolotherapy doctor is skilled at where those needles are being placed.  However, the substances themselves are very, very safe. The typical solution that I use is 15% dextrose, 10% sarapin, and then a small amount of procaine. Honestly, I could inject that solution right into one of my veins and I would be completely fine.