PROLOTHERAPY AN ALTERNATIVE TO NECK SURGERY
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I recently saw a patient who had suffered for at least ten years with neck pain and was told it was time to consider surgery. The doctor (surgeon) wanted to do a multi-level fusion, but the patient wanted to look at alternatives including Prolotherapy.
After six Prolotherapy sessions, the patient's neck stiffness and pain were gone. He stopped taking anti-inflammatories.
Another patient this week came in with a herniated disc as evidenced by MRI scan and referral pain down her arm. Her physician wanted to send her to a surgeon, but she decided to look at alternatives first.
She was seen for eight sessions of Prolotherapy, after which all of her pain was relieved.
Why Seek an Alternative?
The results of neck surgery for completely eliminating neck pain have been poor. Neck surgery, more often than not, “changes” the pain, but does not eliminate it. Long term studies have also shown that neck arthritis often progresses at a faster rate after neck surgeries such as laminectomies or discectomies then if the person didn't have the surgery at all. For this and many other reasons, people are seeking alternatives.
To answer the question posed above, let's consider why someone even gets a surgical recommendation. The overwhelming reason is that they have unremittant neck pain.
Often they have failed anti-inflammatories, cortisone shots, chiropractic manipulation, and physical therapy and go for a surgical consultation “as a last resort”. Typically their x-rays or MRI's show a lot of degeneration, sometimes degenerated discs, facets, or herniated discs.
The secret to successful treatment is actually in the x-rays and MRI's. You see, the overgrowth of bone that shows up as “arthritis” is actually the body's healing system response to make those areas more stable.
Fusion operations are recommended to further stabilize these areas. The problem with fusions are that they don't allow any movement in the fused areas, so the areas above and below the fusion have to compensate and move more. Those areas degenerate quickly and the end result for the patient is that the pain “changed”.
I believe a better option is one that can stabilize the areas of pain without surgery – namely Prolotherapy. The areas of pain are “unstable” because of ligament laxity/stretching or weakness. The muscles over these segments then go into spasm to stabilize these areas. This is why the person often gets muscle spasms that aren't permanently relieved by physical therapy, massage, or steroid shots.
These treatments don't stimulate ligament repair. The best treatment for this is Prolotherapy. Prolotherapy is an injection technique that stimulates the body to repair ligaments. Once the ligaments are tight, strong, and repaired, the muscle spasms stop because the area is stable.
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