Summary of Findings Using Prolotherapy for Chronic Back Pain

What can be done about back pain that doesn't respond to treatment and doesn't go away on its own? Prolotherapy may be the answer, especially when combined with other treatments. Prolotherapy is a way to inject agents into the ligaments and tendons of the spine. The soft tissues are built back up after an injury or trauma. The patient gets relief from pain and increased function.

It sounds good, but does it work? Researchers from the University of Queensland in Australia decided to check it out. They reviewed studies already done on the topic. They found four good studies with a total of 344 patients. Pain and disability were measured before and six months after treatment. Some patients had other treatments at the same time.

The results of this review show that prolotherapy injections as a single treatment for chronic low back pain don't work any better than no treatment at all. Patients get better pain relief when prolotherapy is added to another treatment. More studies are needed to find out what treatment works best when combined with prolotherapy.