Injured at Work, Healed by Prolotherapy
“Living with chronic pain after work related injury is not uncommon” says Felix Linetsky, M.D., an Associate Clinical Professor at Nova Osteopathic Medical School.
Commonly, bone fractures heal but the ligaments and tendons associated with the fractured bone fail to do so and they begin to degenerate. Because the X-Rays and MRIs look normal, the patient is labeled a malingerer or a “gold digger,” who does not want to Return to Work. One of the reasons ligaments and tendons may remain painful is because they heal at a slower rate than the bone. Another common reason for chronic pain is that small blood vessels accompanied by small nerves grow into injured areas during initial healing and do not shrink.
A True Success Story
At the age of 41, a foreman for an industrial air conditioning company fell through the roof of a warehouse in 2005. He had a disc herniation at L4-5. Seven months later, he had fusion surgery at that level but it did not curb the pain. A year later, he had another surgery with fusion of the whole lower back and steel rods placement. In spite of surgical success, the pain remained unchanged. Several radio-frequency nerve ablations also failed. He had to take Percocet every 6 hours with Oxycontin-40mg x twice a day.
My examination showed that he had a large, well-healed scar from his upper through his lower back which was not painful; his right leg was ½” shorter than the left. The pain was located in the left hip where tendons attached to the bone exactly where it was before the surgeries and above the scar where ligaments did not heal after surgery.
On the first visit, he had Prolotherapy treatment to the left hip and buttock tendons, and during follow up visits, to the upper back. Neck problems and headaches were treated as well.
Prior to my treating this patient, his total bill, paid for by the insurance carrier, was over $450,000. My charges for the Prolotherapy treatments were less than $10,000. The patient is back on full duty at work. His last visit was 4 months ago. He is only taking Lortab, 2-4 pills a day. Thousands of injured workers are able to Return to Work after Prolotherapy treatment.
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