ACUTE MENISCAL TEAR      
Robert Filice, M.D. Former staff physician

Recently  I did the first follow up session for a patient I had initially seen two weeks before for acute severe knee pain. At that time the patient was unable to walk because weight bearing on her left knee was impossible due to severe pain, which she graded an 8 out of a maximum ten point scale.

The patient had walked on a pair of high heeled shoes for an occasion, and had pain ever since. She also noticed a tearing or popping sound as she was trying to move around. My exam suggested the possibility of a medial meniscus tear, so in addition to doing a Prolotherapy treatment on the knee (including human growth hormone (HGH) inside the joint for faster repair of internal structures), I did order an MRI of the knee (see A Retrospective Study Shows Prolotherapy is Effective in the Treatment of MRI-Documented Meniscal Tears)

I was concerned about her complete inability to walk, and her pain level, and considered that I might want her to have an orthopedist consultation as well. Two days later I got the MRI - See Knee Research Study result back, and it confirmed a tear of the left medial meniscus. At this time I gave a copy of the MRI along with a note asking about the need for an orthopedist consultation to my collegue, Ross Hauser, M.D. Before I heard back from him on his thoughts about whether an orthopedist consultation was advisable, and how to manage the patient's high level of pain, I called the patient to follow through on the test results and to see how she was doing, I discovered to my delight (and frankly, somewhat to my surprise...!) that her pain level was already (two days after her Prolotherapy treatment) down from an 8 to a two, and with the aid of the crutches I had recommended she obtain, she was getting around fairly well!

I know very well and first hand how effective Prolotherapy is for chronic pain, injuries, and strains. I was honestly somewhat hesitant about whether it would provide enough relief quickly enough for this severe acute meniscal tear. But it appears that Prolotherapy will be all this patient needs to recover completely, and she will not need to see an orthopedist at all. Had this patient not already known about and previously benefited from Prolotherapy, almost certainly today she would still be recuperating from arthroscopic surgery. Hopefully that would have reduced her acute pain, but at the cost of accelrating the degenerative changes that lead to later arthritis in the knee. That is the usual long term complication of arthroscopic surgery of the knee. Prolotherapy is a much better way to go for most people. So for acute or chronic musculoskeletal injuries, think Prolotherapy.