Knee pain is one of the leading causes of a reduction in your quality of life’s because you have to use your legs for just about anything, so if they hurt, you don’t want to do much. Knee pain will limit your ability to exercise, play sports like golf, or simply keep up with your kids or grand kids, heck, just last week I had a patient say she couldn’t even walk down to her mailbox without stopping a bunch of times. I want to cover a “new” treatment for knee pain I use at my that your doctor probably hasn’t ever told you about called Prolozone Injections, so lets’ dive in.
The common types of knee injections
First I want to cover the different types of injections for knee pain, some your doctor has probably told you about and others he/she likely has never mentioned but that are amazing tools for knee pain with quite a bit of research to back that up.
- Steroids (corticosteroids or cortisone)
- Viscosupplementation (knee gel shots)
- Prolozone (this is my favorite treatment for knee pain!)
Unfortunately most doctors will only ever talk about the first 2, steroids and gel shots. Some are now sprinkling in a little PRP but overall they are missing the biggest bang for your buck and safest treatments. So first let me go over why steroids are a terrible idea and why PRP done the way most orthopedic clinics do it is a waste of your $.
Why I Don’t Like Steroid Injections for Knee Pain (Corticosteroids)
These are by far the most common treatment for knee pain, but are probably one of the worst things you can do. They are a powerful anti-inflammatory treatment. The problem is that recent high-level research shows that they don’t work as well as we once thought and destroy normal cartilage. At this point, if you’re not a professional athlete who’s lively hood in the next 3-12 months depends on your knee working well and you don’t care what happens to it 5 years down the road, I don’t recommend steroids shots when there are better alternatives that work better without the high risk of needing a knee replacement down the road because of the damage it can do.
Gel Injections
The research is all over the place for these. Clinically, I see they help some patients for 3-6 months. There’s no research that says they hurt cartilage, so I have no problem with them in that sense. The issue is that they don’t help with all types of knee pain, so they might help, they might not. If you’ve had them and still have pain, keep reading ;).
Prolozone Injections for Knee Pain
Prolozone is my favorite treatment for knee pain. It’s a the combination of Prolotherapy, Vitamin Injections, and Ozone. Let’s break those down and then look at a recent study to see how effective they are. Ozone injections provide rapid effects and better short-term and long term results than anything else I’ve ever seen.
How Does Prolozone Injections Help Knee Pain?
Mechanistically, the mixture of Prolozone (vitamins, 5% dextrose, Ozone) can improve tissue oxygenation, accelerate the generation of reactive oxygen species and thereby could decrease the release of proinflammatory cytokines, which consequently counteracts with the activation and recruitment of leukocytes and other types of cells into the inflammatory site and thus relives the symptoms of knee OA.
A Recent Study on the effectiveness of Prolozone
A recent study compared the effectiveness of Ozone injections with PRP and Gel shots. A total of 200 patients enrolled in the final analysis. The mean age of patients was 56.9 ± 6.3 years, and 69.5% were women. In 2 months follow up, significant improvement of pain, stiffness, and function were seen in all groups compared to the baseline, but the ozone group had the best results (P < 0.05).
Where to Get Prolozone Injections in Tampa, FL?
The most experienced and comprehensive Prolozone Treatment for Knee Pain can be found with Dr. Josh Hanson, DACM at Hanson Complete Wellness in Tampa, FL. Dr Hanson has performed over 30,000 procedures for the treatment of pain. Feel free to get in touch whatever way works best for you – Call or Text us at 813-534-0311, Fill out a Candidacy Form and Dr. Josh Hanson, DACM at Hanson Complete Wellness will call you to see if you’re a candidate or Book Your Visit Online Here.
References
1) McAlindon TE, LaValley MP, Harvey WF, et al. Effect of Intra-articular Triamcinolone vs Saline on Knee Cartilage Volume and Pain in Patients With Knee Osteoarthritis: A Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA.2017;317(19):1967–1975. doi: 10.1001/jama.2017.5283
2) Raeissadat SA, Ghazi Hosseini P, Bahrami MH, et al. The comparison effects of intra-articular injection of Platelet Rich Plasma (Prp), Plasma Rich in Growth Factor (Prgf), Hyaluronic Acid (Ha), and ozone in knee osteoarthritis; a one year randomized clinical trial. BMC Musculoskelet Disord. 2021;22.
