title: Prolotherapy in primary care practice.
abstract: Prolotherapy is an injection-based complementary and alternative medical therapy for chronic musculoskeletal pain. Prolotherapy techniques and injected solutions vary by condition, clinical severity, and practitioner preferences; over several treatment sessions, a fairly small volume of an irritant or sclerosing solution is injected at sites on painful ligament and tendon insertions and in adjacent joint space during several treatment sessions. Prolotherapy is becoming increasingly popular in the United States and internationally and is actively used in clinical practice. Prolotherapy has been assessed as a treatment for various painful chronic musculoskeletal conditions that are refractory to "standard of care" therapies. Although anecdotal clinical success guides the use of prolotherapy for many conditions, clinical trial literature supporting evidence-based decision-making for the use of prolotherapy exists for low back pain, several tendinopathies, and osteoarthritis.
authors.affiliation: Department of Family Medicine, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, 777 South Mills Street, Madison, WI 53715, USA. David.rabago@fammed.wisc.edu
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Rabago
authors.forename: Andrew
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Slattengren
authors.forename: Aleksandra
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Zgierska
mesh_terms: D002908:Chronic Disease; D000529:Complementary Therapies; D006801:Humans; D007270:Injections, Intra-Articular; D007278:Injections, Spinal; D017116:Low Back Pain / Q000188:drug therapy; D009135:Muscular Diseases / Q000188:drug therapy*; D010003:Osteoarthritis / Q000188:drug therapy; D010146:Pain / Q000188:drug therapy*; D011320:Primary Health Care / Q000379:methods* / Q000458:organization & administration; D012597:Sclerosing Solutions / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D052256:Tendinopathy / Q000188:drug therapy; D014481:United States
chemical_list: D012597:Sclerosing Solutions