Prolotherapy – Glastonbury, CT

The History of Prolotherapy

The concept behind prolotherapy dates as far back as the ancient Greeks, when Hippocrates would treat athletes with unstable shoulders. He described touching the tip of a slender hot metal rod to the damaged ligaments. This “cauterized” the ligaments, causing them to tighten up. (It is interesting to note that orthopedic surgeons have used a similar technique surgically, involving lasers or heat probes, to tighten loose shoulder ligaments.) Modern use of prolotherapy traces its roots to the early 20th century when a surgeon from Ohio, George Hackett MD, started treating patients with chronic low back pain by injecting the ligaments around the low back. He demonstrated an 80-90% success rate.

The sugar solution is an irritant (like getting lemon juice in a cut on your finger), and it creates a local inflammatory reaction. This reaction then stimulates or “jump starts” the body’s own natural repair mechanisms.

How Prolotherapy
Can Help You Heal

Today, prolotherapy is used successfully to treat many different painful conditions, including:

• Joint instability, including the knee, shoulder, wrist, ankle, hip and other joints
• Chronic sports injuries
• Certain types of arthritis
• Chronic or recurrent tendinitis, such as Tennis elbow, partial rotator cuff tears, Achilles tendinitis or patellar tendinitis.
• Chronic or recurrent sprains & strains of the ligaments and tendons
• Whiplash injuries
• Chronic back pain

Prolotherapy is designed to be a permanent fix, not simply a temporary procedure. Approximately 80-90% of patients appropriately treated with prolotherapy will experience benefit; some get 40-50% improvement, while others may get 90-100% improvement. There is no way, however, to predict how well someone will respond.

The Timeline for Prolotherapy

Effective treatment usually takes between 3 and 6 treatments. Treatments are given approximately once a month. If no signs of improvement are seen after 3 treatments, treatment is usually discontinued. If there is marked improvement after only 1-2 treatments, then no further treatments may be necessary. There is no limit to the number of treatments that may be given, as long as improvement continues to be seen. There is also no increase in risk factors with subsequent treatments.

The effectiveness of prolotherapy treatment may be enhanced by improving nutrition (including taking supplements such as glucosamine and MSM) and optimizing hormone balance.

Prolotherapy: Safe & Effective

Prolotherapy is extremely safe, and while there are risks to any injection procedure, the risks are minimal. At Valley Sports Physicians & Orthopedic Medicine, we have never had any long-term adverse effects from prolotherapy treatments. We've been performing Prolotherapy since 1995 – longer than any physician in Connecticut and longer than most in all of New England and even in the US!

Call us to schedule an appointment to see if your injury may respond to prolotherapy.

(NOTE: All of our Stem Cell treatments are performed by our affiliate, the New England Stem Cell Institute.)

Prolotherapy FAQs

Many patients who come to see us have never heard of prolotherapy before, so as you can imagine, they have quite a few questions when we bring it up as an option! This is to be expected, and before you give us a call, we’ve gone ahead and answered some of the most frequently asked questions we receive about this treatment. If there is anything else you’d like to know that we haven’t touched on this page, be sure to reach out to our team.