Prolotherapy Injections from Qualified Podiatrists
Prolotherapy is a treatment designed to induce the body’s immune system into kickstarting the repair of damaged or scarred tissue.
The process involves injecting a substance into the damaged region, creating an induced inflammation which in turn, increases blood flow to the area so the body can repair itself.
Podiatrists perform more injection therapy on patients than almost any other field of medicine, and our highly trained podiatrists at PridePlus have years of experience in using prolotherapy injections to help patients achieve better health in their feet and ankles.
Prolotherapy injections can be utilised for chronic ankle sprains, osteoarthritis (OA), plantar fasciitis and bursitis/neuroma.
Prolotherapy can involve the use of local anaesthetic agents, simple sugars such as glucose, platelet-rich plasma and much more.
At PridePlus we use isotonic glucose mixed with a local anaesthetic to stimulate the healing response and achieve a reparative process in the targeted tissue and to help reduce acute on chronic pain.
How Does Prolotherapy Work?
Traditional medical interventions for joint and ligament injuries typically take one of two paths.
The hands-off approach is to take loading away from the damaged area, restrict movement until the area has healed, and slowly reintroduce strength and conditioning.
The hands-on approach addresses those cases where simply allowing the body to heal will not have the desired outcome, and minor or major surgery is often the resulting treatment.
Prolotherapy takes an alternative route that navigates the middle of these two paths, actively manipulating the body’s own healing mechanisms, and employing them to repair the damaged tissue at an accelerated rate.
The Role of Induced Inflammation on Injury
While chronic inflammation can cause tissue damage or worse, by creating an acute inflammatory response around the desired tissue, the body’s immune system activates higher blood flow to the area.
The body’s natural defence and repair elements are contained within the blood, and the body uses inflammation to transport those elements from the blood to the affected tissue, where they can begin repairing the injured tissue and muscle fibres.
What Conditions do Prolotherapy Improve on?
Prolotherapy is most useful in chronic or long term medical conditions where the body has normalised the pain. When the body’s healing process is stuck and not healing it’s own tissue effectively, injection therapy can offer an alternative to invasive procedures.
A fantastic alternative to surgery in the right circumstances, your podiatrist may suggest prolotherapy in cases where an old injury will not improve, but surgery is not recommended due to other factors.
Injection therapy works best on joints and ligaments and is often used around the foot and ankle.. Due to the comparatively high number of joints and ligaments in the foot when compared to other parts of the body, prolotherapy is more common in podiatry than many other medical treatments.
If you have an old injury that refuses to heal or a joint that isn’t functioning correctly, talk to one of our podiatrists at PridePlus how Prolotherapy can help you get back on your feet.
