Prolotherapy for sciatica

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Almonit

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Hi,

The Xray and the MRI both show mild posterior bulging at L5-S1 disc. Everything else look normal. Occasionally the pain will shoot down my leg but most of the time it's burning buttock and when I lay down on either side the burning is also in the upper leg that I lay on. I survive the nights with O24. I have been to chiropractor but no improvement. Also did exercises base on a book but they only helped partially and for short time.
Judging by the pain I need to do something but not sure what. Should I consider Prolotherapy or is it too 'heavy' for a mild bulging? my insurance will cover about a quarter of the expense.

Will appreciate any input and guidance you can give me.
Thanks
 
I don't understand why he wants to fix my ligaments ? My problem is nerve damage ? Maybe its for both ??? I do have a bulge at the L3 level now so maybe this is what he's working on ? I'm going to have a CT first before I jump into this ...I don't want to over look anything .. He did say something about my S1 joint but I can't remeraber exactly what like a dummy.
 
I don't know anything about prolotherapy either , my Dr. prescribed me to have this done also for my S1 joints or something , I had 3 spine surgeries plus a spinalcord stim implant and have bad nerve damage ..My hip pain is pretty bad so maybe this will help ?

I'm going to read a few post here about this , look in your advanced search thingy on this site ..

Shawley


PS if you find out anything please let me know ok ?
 
Thanks for all that replied...hope to still hear from those that had the therapy ...but maybe after they had prolotherapy they have been cured and that is the reason they aren't visiting the board lately.

But I wanted to react to the opinion that was expressed in the last few posts that if it is so good and a cure how come we don't hear more about it. I disagree with this sentence. Most conventional doctors today will do everything to promote medicine & surgery and everything to discourage you from non-invasive alternative treatments. It's very unfortunate but money drives the health care industry in our days. About 2-3 years ago a doctor literally left the room during my visit because I told him I take a nutrient instead of a medicine for a certain condition. And now you can hear on the news that the pharmaceutical companies are trying to make the very same nutrient into a drug.
My experience with doctors is that most of them don't know and don't want to know about alternative treatments and it has nothing to do with it being effective or not. How long did it take for the medical establishment to recognize chiropractic?
 
This is one of the treatments mentioned by my doctor over a year ago when I first went to him. I would ask about it on this board every so often, but did not get too much of a response one way or another.

BUT, after a LOT of searches using search engines, I found a research study on it that said prolotherapy could cause "a...." (spelling?) ... Sorry, I can't remeraber the name of the condition but it starts with an a... Basically from researching that term, I found out (in layman's terms) it means that the wrong ligaments could get "glued" together and could cause further PERMANENT damage. That was enough for me to be scared off by the procedure.

Sorry I can't provide more info (with my failing memory, I'm surprised I remeraber that much, ha!), but there had been so much positive stuff said about it from other sources, I kept wondering why it's not more prominent and talked about. It also seemed to be an "alternative" treatment rather than medical, and I'm not even sure a doctor performs it ... ?? It was one of the last things my doctor mentioned in the course of a possible treatment plan.

Done rarabling on ya! (so sorry, it's early). :confused:
 
Hi guys, I did a quick research and this is what I found.

Prolotherapy is a natural technique that stimulates the body to repair the painful area. Instead of injecting steroiRAB they are injecting a liquid substance into ligaments or tendons which leaRAB to localized inflammation. The inflammation triggers a healing and the growth of new collagen. Collagan is the material that ligaments and tendons are made of. The New collagen shrinks as it matures and the shrinking collagen tightens the ligament that was injected and makes it stronger. The results appear to be pretty good from what I have read.

Please keep me posted on your results. I wander why this is not talked about on the board more. Hmmmmmmmmm........
 
It wasn't adhesions, it was a medical term I've seen used in the Back forums even here as something that could happen with the ligaments due to other procedures as well. I'm thinking it starts with "An" and also has a g in it. I guess it's a pretty bad thing to have happen. I'm really sorry I can't think of the exact name ... I tried searching the other Prolotherapy threaRAB because I'm thinking someone else brought up this condition in one of their responses but the research I've attempted this morning has been rather unsuccessful.

At any rate, re-reading through some of those threaRAB, it made me realize what made me uncomfortable with the procedure. It just doesn't seem like it could "deliver" what is promised, if it could why don't more people know about it and patients screaming for it? It would at least rate the popularity of acupuncture I would think.

Many months ago, I had also checked a book out of the library entitled Prolo Your Pain Away: Curing Chronic Pain with Prolotherapy. I came away feeling like it could cure a person's every pain, but my logic took hold again - if that's so, why don't we know more about it? I guess I concluded it might be like the practice of a chiropracter. Might help, might hurt but if it hurts, it could be worse and permanent.

So far, I'm not ready to have it done. But, I've also not found anything else that works, sooooo maybe if I got desperate enough.... Right now, I'm not there. I just wanted to make sure others knew there are some risks involved (it took some digging on my part to find it). I've never seen much interest on the board about prolotherapy so unfortunately I didn't save the information....
 
I am going to have Prolotherapy done on my lower back pain next month, will report after Tx.
 
I am wondering what this would do for nerve pain and/or nerve damage, though. I have never read about prolotherapy, so know nothing about it, but it seems it's to help ligaments & tendons? So I wonder how it could help with nerve problems?
 
I had 2 rounRAB of Prolotherapy in August and Septeraber of 2006. I had been having neck pain and headaches for many years that my primary care doctor had dismissed. I finally worked up the nerve to go see a new doctor about my problems and this new doctor immediately wanted to try prolotherapy. He said the ligaments in my neck were "too loose" and that is what was causing my pain. He stated the prolotherapy would cause those loose ligaments to tighten up and thereby solve my problem. At the first session he gave me about 10 injections into my neck, back of the head in the occipital region, and into my right shoulder. The injections contained the chemical irritant and some lidocaine to temporarily nurab the injection site. The injections were horribly painful! After the injections he told me to come back in 2 weeks for another round and in the meantime to refrain from taking any aspirin products or NSAIRAB as they would hinder the desired results. Up until then I had been living on Ibuprofen and Excedrin for pain and so I asked him what I should do then for pain. He said I may not need anything anymore for pain, and he sent me on my way.

By about midnight that night the lidocaine was starting to wear off from the injections and i was really hurting. By about 4 am I was in the worst pain of my entire life! I have a job where I have to go to work no matter what kind of shape I am in, so when morning came I got out of bed and started getting ready for work. I was in terrible pain, particularly in my shoulder, and I was having a difficult time even dressing myself. My right arm was pretty useless, and I was trying to do things with my left arm only. I bent kind of funny as a result and felt a "pop" in my lower back and excruciating pain resulted. That ended up being my L4-5 disc herniating!

As things turned out, I went back to my original doctor and insisted on an MRI for my neck. That MRI showed severe DDD from C3-6 with severe central cervical stenosis at C4-5. I had a C4-5 ACDF in Noveraber of 2006. My lower back continued to plague me through out my surgery and recovery. I finally begged for a lurabar MRI which confirmed the L4-5 herniation. I have ongoing problems with both my cervical and lurabar spine. I have re-herniated above and below my cervical fusion, and a lurabar MRI I had just a few weeks ago shows that lurabar herniation as significantly progressed since the original MRI. I'm now staring right in the face of a lurabar fusion.

Prolotherapy does not work. There are NO controlled scientific studies that show a benefit from the procedure. Medicare, Medicaid, and most private insurance companies do not pay for prolotherapy for this reason. I personally feel like prolotherapy harmed me and set up a situation where I permanently injured myself. I would caution anyone to think long and hard before they submit to this practice.
 
Laenini - Your Dr. should have done a MRI first ?? What kind of quak is your Dr. doing this without a MRI ? Prolotherapy doesn't fix Herniations or stuff in that nature , just ligaments and stuff . I'm very sorry your Dr. put you through sensless injections, but they probably do help others ...I'm supposed to have it done ., but I'm not driving 300 miles every week for injections . No thanks . After reading how much pain it caused you , Jeezzz :eek:
 
Oh gosh, I just read some more about this prolotherapy and it seems it's supposed to cause inflammation in the tendons/ligaments (depending on which it's injected into), which in turn is supposed to promote new growth of the tendons/ligaments to make them stronger. I already have problems with some tendons & ligaments in my spine and my ankle. I have a spine ligament that has thickened alot & was buckled into my spinal canal before my surgery. I also have abnormally thickened tendons (which have been chronically torn for many tears) in my right ankle. For myself anyway, there is no way I would anything to cause these to become even larger or irritated in myself. Mine are causing enough problems, in part, because of the abnormal thickening. And like you said, if it was really a cure for all those things, then no one would have those problems anymore. Perhaps it works for some people, though.
 
I finally ran across the term I was trying to remeraber earlier in this thread... it is "arachnoiditis" (for what it's worth) ...it's been aggravating me these past months trying to remeraber what it was...
 
They have a lot of infor available on Search Engine about it: all do and all don't.
Interesting information.
 
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