Prolotherapy for Plantar Fasciitis?

Doctor Darrow: Prolotherapy are injections that we give right into the foot.

First, we anesthetize the foot so you don’t feel the needle, and then we get right down to the part where the spring ligament, which creates the arch of the foot, attaches to the calcaneus (heel bone) at the bottom of the foot. Prolotherapy treatment stimulates an inflammatory response that grows back and strengthens that attachment.

After Prolotherapy treatment, we like for people to use a walking boot because every time we step off the foot during walking we stretch that attachment from the ligament to the back of the foot to the heel. The boot helps the area heal. Most people think that Plantar Fasciitis pain is from the bone spur, it’s the reverse. What happens is that the ligament starts to loosen up and starts pulling on the back of the heel and a bone spur forms to help stabilize that ligament. With Prolotherapy we can thicken the ligament, tendons, and joint capsule.