What Is Prolotherapy for Chronic Back Pain?

Chronic back pain can be caused by a wide variety of issues involving the spine, nerves and complete musculoskeletal system. An injury, aging, disease and other conditions can impact the muscles, vertebrae, nerves, joints and discs surrounding the spine. Often, the pain is caused by inflammation that irritates the nerves and soft tissues. One of the possible treatments is prolotherapy, a conservative, non-invasive pain relief method. Here are the basics on what is prolotherapy for chronic back pain and where to find this treatment near you.

What Is Prolotherapy?

The body has the ability to repair and heal tissues. When a healing response is triggered, the body will send repair substances to the area to strengthen the tissue. Prolotherapy uses this natural, regenerative response to help repair damaged tissue in muscles, ligaments, tendons and other tissues. Prolotherapy uses injections of an irritant or healing substance (usually a dextrose solution or PRP) into the area that is causing chronic pain. It may be an arthritic knee, or it can be in the lower back. The Injection stimulates a reaction to strengthen the surrounding tissues, building new fibers in ligaments and other tissues.

Prolotherapy is used to treat both injuries and disease that cause chronic back pain. For instance, chronic back pain may be caused by a strain to ligaments in the spine or it may be caused by osteoarthritis in the facet joints. Prolotherapy can help with both types of pain by repairing and strengthening the tissues surrounding the spine. This extra support can improve the health of the back and spine, allowing for better function and less pain.

Types of Prolotherapy

The idea behind prolotherapy is to stimulate healing to repair tissue and relieve pain. There are different substances that are used in prolotherapy to trigger this response. Prolotherapy is short for proliferation therapy, or increasing healing factors within the body. It is a regenerative therapy, which means it uses the body’s own healing ability for treatment. There are a few different types of prolotherapy that can be used for treatment of joint or back pain. These include:

• Dextrose. Using a dextrose solution injected near damaged ligaments or tendons can irritate the tissues, triggering a healing response.
• PRP. Platelet-rich plasma, or PRP, is derived from your own blood and injected into areas that are injured or inflamed, providing growth factors and other healing elements to repair the tissue.
• Biocellular. Adipose fatty tissue or bone marrow concentrate (BMC) may be used in prolotherapy, delivering stem cells to help repair damaged tissue and reduce inflammation.

All the types of prolotherapy are regenerative methods that do not use steroids or harmful drugs to reduce pain. The goal is to stimulate natural healing and regeneration of tissue using a non-invasive method.

What Is Prolotherapy Treatment Like?

Treatment for chronic back pain with prolotherapy can be performed in short sessions at a doctors office. The injection treatment may only take a half an hour or less – PRP and biocellular prolotherapy will require time to harvest the blood or stem cell tissue. The injection is carefully placed to trigger the healing response in the specific tissues that are damaged or causing pain. The injection may be slightly uncomfortable or cause a little soreness, but this pain quickly fades. Most prolotherapy includes multiple sessions spaced a few weeks apart to create the desired healing response.

How Does Prolotherapy Improve Back Pain?

Prolotherapy can strengthen the ligaments in the spine that support the facet joints, vertebrae and discs. This can provide stability and less inflammation that can irritate nerves stemming from the spine. Prolotherapy can also repair damaged tendons and soft tissue from back injuries. In many cases, prolotherapy can relieve chronic back pain without the need for back surgery or more invasive treatments.

Prolotherapy Near Me

What is your prolotherapy treatment availability? If you are wondering “Where is prolotherapy near me?” take the time to perform a quick search for clinics in your area. Prolotherapy is offered at many orthopedic and pain management clinics that offer interventional or minimally-invasive therapies for chronic pain. Prolotherapy is used for joint pain and injuries, as well as back, neck and spine injuries and disease. Most major cities and towns have clinics that will offer prolotherapy treatments for chronic back pain. It is becoming more mainstream and an accepted form of chronic pain treatment.

If you suffer from chronic back pain and you want to explore minimally-invasive treatments for relief, consider the benefits of prolotherapy. With a series of injections, you could experience an improvement in your back pain as the ligaments and tissues are strengthened through regenerative techniques. To learn more about prolotherapy, contact a pain management or orthopedic clinic near you that offers dextrose, PRP or biocellular (stem cell) injections and schedule a consultation.

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