Prolotherapy and Knee Pain Articles
April 12, 2011 by Dr. Marc Darrow, M.D.
Filed under Knee Pain
NEW Knee Pain Forum
When faced with the ACL treatment decision, a patient will usually weigh two options, surgery or no surgery. There are a lot of opinions offered as to which path the patient should take. Every ACL injury is unique to the patient, so this question is best asked of your physician and better yet, a second opinion physician. ACL surgery is an elective surgery and many athletes have chosen not to have it.
Preventing ACL injuries in elite athletes
Diagnosis of knee injuries is, in my opinion, too dependant on many large machines and invasive techniques. Your knee hurts so you visit the orthopedist, here he uses his tools to figure out why your knee hurts. While some of these tools are very impressive indeed, are they accurate?
To understand the theory (and folly) of this seemingly “harmless” procedure, one needs to understand the physiological composition of the joint. Most of the joints in the body are synovial joints, which are flexible and self-lubricating.
Removing tissue from your knee through surgical intervention can only make your knee weaker in the long run and prone to arthritis because removal of tissue decreases the shock absorption capabilities built in to protect the knee.
It is easy to twist a knee, bang a knee, land the wrong way, there is a lot of reasons, arthritis comes up, those are some of the reasons. Also a lot of Chondromalacia patella, that is where the knee bone kind of cracks a little bit against the femur, the thigh bone.
When the doctor says: “I am recommending surgery, ultimately you will probably need a knee replacement due to the damage in there.” There are two choices to make when the doctor says these words to you. One, accept your destiny and continue to live with an unstable and painful knee until the surgeon calls, or find a solution to your pain now.
To someone wearing a knee brace, who regularly tapes ice on their knee and takes prescribed and over-the-counter pain medication, what else could there be but surgery? How about Prolotherapy?
How Do You Tell A Patient Their Knee Brace Won’t Work For Them?
There are many ways to treat a knee injury, surgery, rehabilitation, and less evasive techniques such as acupuncture, trigger point injections, prolotherapy, exercise and specialized training. These therapies and treatments are carried out by a wide range of medical professionals and while many rehabilitation specialists do not agree on which method is best, the one thing that most agree on is that the use of a knee brace to either prevent a knee injury or help support and provide comfort will not work for everyone.
Discussions with callers to our radio program about ACL problems
