Dextrose and morrhuate sodium injections (prolotherapy) for knee osteoarthritis: a prospective open-label trial.

Objectives: This study determined whether injection with hypertonic dextrose and morrhuate sodium (prolotherapy) using a pragmatic, clinically determined injection schedule for knee osteoarthritis (KOA) results in improved knee pain, function, and stiffness compared to baseline status.

Design: This was a prospective three-arm uncontrolled study with 1-year follow-up.

Setting: The setting was outpatient.

Association between disease-specific quality of life and magnetic resonance imaging outcomes in a clinical trial of prolotherapy for knee osteoarthritis.

Objective: To assess the relation between knee osteoarthritis (KOA)-specific quality of life (QOL) and intra-articular cartilage volume (CV) in participants treated with prolotherapy. KOA is characterized by CV loss and multifactorial pain. Prolotherapy is an injection therapy reported to improve KOA-related QOL to a greater extent than blinded saline injections and at-home exercise, but its mechanism of action is unclear.

Dextrose prolotherapy for knee osteoarthritis: a randomized controlled trial.

Purpose: Knee osteoarthritis is a common, debilitating chronic disease. Prolotherapy is an injection therapy for chronic musculoskeletal pain. We conducted a 3-arm, blinded (injector, assessor, injection group participants), randomized controlled trial to assess the efficacy of prolotherapy for knee osteoarthritis.

Hypertonic dextrose injections (prolotherapy) for knee osteoarthritis: results of a single-arm uncontrolled study with 1-year follow-up.

Objective: The objective of this study was to determine whether prolotherapy, an injection-based complementary treatment for chronic musculoskeletal conditions, improves pain, stiffness, and function in adults with symptomatic knee osteoarthritis (KOA) compared to baseline status.

Design: This was a prospective, uncontrolled study with 1-year follow-up.

Setting: The study was conducted in an outpatient setting.

Response of knee ligaments to prolotherapy in a rat injury model.

Background: Prolotherapy is an alternative therapy for chronic musculoskeletal injury including joint laxity. The commonly used injectant, D-glucose (dextrose), is hypothesized to improve ligament mechanics and decrease pain through an inflammatory mechanism. No study has investigated the mechanical effects of prolotherapy on stretch-injured ligaments.

Early inflammatory response of knee ligaments to prolotherapy in a rat model.

Prolotherapy is an alternative injection-based therapy for chronic musculoskeletal pain. Three different proliferants, D-glucose (dextrose), phenol-glucose-glycerine (P2G), and sodium morrhuate, used in prolotherapy are hypothesized to strengthen and reorganize chronically injured soft tissue and decrease pain through modulation of the inflammatory process. Our hypothesis is that commonly used prolotherapy solutions will induce inflammation (leukocyte and macrophage infiltration) in medial collateral ligaments (MCLs) compared to needlestick, saline injection, and no-injection controls.