PROLOTHERAPY FOR NON-HEALED LIGAMENT INJURIES AND ITS ASSOCIATED AUTONOMIC PHENOMENON

George S. Hackett, M.D., a trauma surgeon at Mercy Hospital in Canton, Ohio, coined the term Prolotherapy. As he describes it, “The treatment consists of the injection of a solution within the relaxed ligament and tendon which will stimulate the production of new fibrous tissue and bone cells that will strengthen the “weld” of fibrous tissue and bone to stabilize the articulation and permanently eliminate the disability.”²²² Dr. Hackett showed that Prolotherapy stimulated the normal inflammatory reaction by studying the effects of Prolotherapy on animal tissues. For instance, rabbit tendons injected with Prolotherapy solution examined at various intervals histologically showed an infiltration of normal inflammatory cells without any evidence of necrosis (damage) to nerves, blood vessels or tendon tissue. (See Figure 14.) The rabbit tendons were also noted to increase in diameter by 40% and the tendon-bone interface diameter (fibro-osseous junction) increased by 30%.²²³ Dr. Hackett turned animal research into clinical application as he published numerous scientific papers advocating Prolotherapy. The main emphasis in his papers was his findings that most chronic pain was due to non-healed ligament injuries causing joint instability. Prolotherapy stimulated ligament growth and repair causing joint stabilization.^224-226 For instance, in 1955, Dr. Hackett analyzed 146 consecutive cases of undiagnosed low back disability during a two-month period. He found that 94% of the patients experienced joint ligament injury, or what he called relaxation.²²⁷ In other words, they had non-healed ligament injuries. In 1956, a similar survey of 124 consecutive undiagnosed low back disability patients revealed that 97% of patients possessed joint instability from ligament weakness. Even though 50% had already undergone back surgery for a presumed disc problem, Prolotherapy produced cures of their low back in 80% of the cases.²²⁸ In his largest case series involving 1,857 patients, Dr. Hackett found non-healed ligament injuries as the cause of pain in 1,583 of the cases. Follow-up on the patients 12 years after treatment found that Prolotherapy cured 82% of the patients.²²⁹ Similar results were found when Prolotherapy was done to ligaments in the neck that caused neck pain and headaches.^{230, 231} Dr. Hackett’s conclusion that ligaments are a primary cause of chronic joint pain and instability that is successfully treated by Prolotherapy, has been confirmed by numerous authors for low back pain,^232-235 knee pain,^{236, 237} TMJ pain,^{238, 239} and many other joints.^240-245

Figure 14. Micrographs of sections from rabbit Achilles tendons following the injection of the proliferant, Sylnasol. The same technique was done as that which is used clinically. Used with permission of Beulah Land Press © 2007 Oak Park, IL. Prolo Your Pain Away! Curing Chronic Pain with Prolotherapy.

Dr. Hackett coined the term “ligament relaxation” to explain the weakness associated with non-healed ligament injuries. He noted, “Ligament relaxation is a condition in which the strength of the ligament fibers has become impaired so that a stretching of the fibrous strands occurs when the ligament is submitted to normal or less than normal tension.”²⁴⁶ When the weakened ligament is stretched, Dr. Hackett noted that it caused not only local pain but also referral pains throughout the body. Those referred pain patterns of ligaments were outlined in Dr. Hackett’s observations after he performed more than 18,000 intraligamentous injections to 1,656 patients over a period of 19 years.²⁴⁷ For instance, he found the most common cause of sciatic pain down the leg was from sacroiliac ligament relaxation.²⁴⁸ He also observed that non-healed ligament injuries commonly caused bone dystrophy,²⁴⁹ another term for the decalcification of bone commonly known as osteopenia or osteoporosis.