back pain: Literature review finds no consensus on prolotherapy's efficacy

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From Biomechanics November 2004

http://biomech.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=52601724

Literature review finds no consensus on prolotherapy's efficacy

By: R.

Evidence for effectiveness of prolotherapy in reducing pain and

disability in patients who suffer from chronic low back pain is not

clear, according to an Australian review study.

Researchers from the University of Queensland in Brisbane looked at four

separate studies involving 344 patients. All four trials measured pain

and disability reports at six months after initial treatment; three of

the four also looked at the proportion of patients who reported a

greater than 50% reduction in pain/disability scores up to six months

from the initial report.

The reviewers found that the studies were not always well matched, with

various intervening factors, such as the inclusion of other therapies,

making it difficult to pool results.

The authors concluded that while there is conflicting evidence about the

effectiveness of prolotherapy alone for patients with chronic low back

pain, in partnership with other interventions, prolotherapy injections

were more effective than placebo injections.