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Prolotherapy Rebuilds Cartilage
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.
Why remove tissue then? Because some physicians believe that the meniscus, the piece of cartilage between the femur and the tibia, does not have the ability to be repaired, either by regular body repair mechanisms or
surgery. So it is shaved, smoothed, or partially removed. Years ago, when a meniscus was injured, the standard protocol was complete removal. Many of these patients were forced to have knee replacements years later because of the severe pain from the meniscus removal.
A recent study, (Reeves KD Hassanein K Randomized prospective double-blind placebo-controlled study of dextrose
Prolotherapy for knee osteoarthritis with or without
ACL laxity. Alt Ther Hlth Med 2000;6(2):37-46,) showed that Prolotherapy stimulates the growth of articulate cartilage.
In this study, people who had knee arthritis, and, who suffered from knee pain for an average of eight years or more, received Prolotherapy over a six month period. Important to note is that 35% of the knees examined for the study had no cartilage remaining in one or more major compartments.
The results? 35% reduction of pain, 45% improvement in swelling and 67% improvement in knee buckling as well as a 13 degree improvement in knee range of motion.
From
his book,
Prolotherapy, An
Alternative to Knee Surgery
my colleague Ross Hauser, M.D., of
Oak Park, Illinois shows a patient’s x-ray.
The before picture shows bone-on-bone. The
after picture shows regeneration of
cartilage after Prolotherapy.
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