Evidence-Based Regenerative Injection Therapy (Prolotherapy) in SportsMedicine

. The treatment of sports injuries to the point of restoration of full sports performance is an obvious goal in sports medicine. However, healing is the preferred goal because returning connective tissue to normal strength allows for a durable return to full sports performance. . Regenerative injection therapy (prolotherapy) is the injection of growth factors or growth factor production stimulants to promote the regeneration of normal cells and tissue. Inflammation is not required, and scarring is not the result. . Open-label clinical trials have been uniformly positive in outcome,but double-blindclinical trials havebeenhamperedby aneedling control that does not appear to be aplacebo.Recent studies are making use of a noninjection control. . Making use of consecutive patient data from athletes with career-threatening injuries (i.e., chronic groin strain in soccer or rugby players) that are not responsive to other treatments is a recommended study approach to assess regenerative injection therapy’s ability to reverse otherwise permanent conditions.This is an avenue for the critical assessment of regenerative injection therapy’s potential. . Serial high-resolution ultrasound images are limited somewhat by uniformity of technique, but they offer a way to follow healing from regenerative injections.