Teenage female patient with multiple knee surgeries
When this teenage athlete came to our office in spring 2010, she suffered from  of hopelessness. Prior to her injury she was an extremely active teenager, but now after multiple surgeries she was still in severe pain. She  loved hiking, soccer, tennis, snowboarding, and wakeboarding. At age 15, our patient suffered an ACL tear and a meniscal tear in her knee and she underwent surgery to repair those structures. Her post-surgical recovery was complicated by an infection, which required her to have another surgery and a PICC line in place for a couple months to receive long-term antibiotic therapy. As time went on, She did not experience the pain relief and results she had hoped for and two years after her first two surgeries, she underwent another knee surgery to remove a Cyclops lesion that was a result of a complication with her ACL reconstructive surgery. A Cyclops lesion is a localized area of scar tissue that occurs in 1-9.8% of patients after ACL surgery when the new ligament begins to fray and bundles into a knot. Due to its location, this localized area of scar tissue can inhibit full extension.

Young patients like this example are one reason why we are so passionate about helping young people avoid knee surgery. After the last surgery, our patient was unable to run and play the sports that she loved because her knee continued to be extremely painful with prolonged weight bearing activities. She began to feel isolated from her athletic friends and her unresolved knee pain started to negatively impact her outlook on life. Our young patient had been using Non-Steroid Anti-Inflammatory Drugs (NSAIDs) for the past three years to help control her pain following the surgeries, but the NSAIDs weren’t able to help get her back to the sports she loved. Not only did she continue to have significant knee pain after the surgeries, but she now also experienced hypersensitivity in her knee, as her knee was extremely painful to the touch. She also reported a periodic, aggravating numbness throughout her entire lower leg, foot, and big toe. Just going to the mall was a painful and disappointing experience for her. Her knee pain would keep her up at night and she felt increasingly depressed over her limitations.

Prolotherapy Resolves Post-Surgical Knee Pain
In a desperate search to help her daughter, mom found Caring Medical online and decided to schedule an appointment. When Dr. Hauser first examined her, he told her that based on her symptoms; she was heading towards Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy Syndrome (RSDS). RSDS, also known as Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS), is an extremely painful and debilitating nerve disorder that can occur at the site of an injury. Because of this, Dr. Hauser wanted her to do certain exercises along with Prolotherapy to regain normal sensation in her limb. He also recommended Hauser Diet Typing and food sensitivity testing in order to optimize her body’s healing ability. She followed all of Dr. Hauser’s recommendations while receiving six treatments over six months.

Gradual Improvements
Although she only noted small improvements during each visit, she recently updated us with a thank you note telling us that one year after her last treatment she is now 100% pain free. She told us that her knee continued to improve after her last treatment and she started getting back to all of the activities she used to love. Her knee continued to feel increasingly stronger and less painful over time. She is now back to playing soccer, running, hiking, and snowboarding. She recently went on a snowboarding trip where she was able to snowboard four days in a row and she recently completed a 5k race for charity. She had not been able to do any of those activities for over three years due to her injury and subsequent surgeries. She feels that the Comprehensive Prolotherapy she received at Caring Medical was responsible for her remarkable turnaround.

This delayed healing response is something we occasionally see with patients here at Caring Medical. Some patients will experience only incremental improvements each month while receiving Prolotherapy treatment, but as time goes on, their pain continues to decrease and their functioning continues to improve. That is because by definition Prolotherapy injections stimulates the proliferation of cells to an injured area and Prolotherapy can continue to stimulate healing in the injured area for months and months after a patient’s last treatment. Therefore, it makes sense that if the patient’s pain is not completely resolved after completing Prolotherapy treatments, they will continue to report improvements in their pain and functioning several months after their last treatment. To learn more about Prolotherapy research and to find a Prolotherapy doctor