Effects of Intraarticular Prolotherapy on Sacroiliac Joint Pain

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Sacroiliac (SI) joint pain is a challenging condition that causes lower back or buttock pain; however, there is no universally accepted long-term treatment. There have been several reports of ligament prolotherapy for SI joint pain, but these have had inconsistent results, probably due to the lack of a specific diagnosis for patient selection and variability in the volume, number and sites of injection. Therefore, this study was conducted to assess the efficacy of intraarticular prolotherapy for relieving SI joint pain diagnosed by local anesthetic intraarticular injection. METHODS: Twenty-two patients with SI joint pain confirmed by 50% or more improvement in response to local anesthetic block underwent intraarticular prolotherapy with 25% dextrose water every other week three times. The numeric rating scale (NRS) for pain and Oswestry disability index (ODI) were assessed at the initial visit and after completion of a series of prolotherapy and the NRS was checked during monthly follow-up sessions to evaluate the long-term effectiveness of this technique. RESULTS: Twenty patients completed prolotherapy and followed up as scheduled. The NRS and ODI were significantly improved from 6 (4-8) and 34.1 +/- 15.5 to 1 (0-3) and 12.6 +/- 9.8 (P < 0.01), respectively, at 1 month after prolotherapy. The mean duration of pain relief of 50% or more was 12.2 months (95% CI, 10.0-14.3) as determined by Kaplan-Meier survival analysis. CONCLUSIONS: Intraarticular prolotherapy provided long-term relief of sacroiliac joint pain and may have more benefits than ligament prolotherapy or neurolysis.