PRP Prolotherapy and Labral Tear

Marlene recently decided to use a coach to help her train for her upcoming marathon – the Las Vegas Marathon in December. Six months prior to the marathon, she began training with the coach. The coach obviously had her doing a lot of running, but also cross training with some cycling, as well as strength training. The strength training involved Swiss ball exercises, dumb bell exercises, as well as stationary and walking lunges. Marlene was very diligent with her training and worked very hard to do every workout that the coach gave her. Unfortunately, two months prior to the marathon she started developing pain in the front of her right hip. Being the ever-OCD athlete, she continued to train – both run and strength train, along with riding her bike.

Over the next month, the pain began to worsen to the point where even walking was becoming painful. Her runs were getting longer – at the 17 mile range. At the end of these runs she found it very difficult to even lift her foot up off the ground. Oddly enough, she was able to complete the runs, but once she finished it, the pain would get worse. She tried putting heat on the area, as well as taking additional healing supplements. She realized that the pain was not going away and that it might be something serious. So she decided to come to see Dr. Hauser at Caring Medical.

Dr. Hauser was able to palpate some very tender spots on the front of her hip and thought that she most likely had a partially torn labrum of the hip due to improper technique used with the walking lunges. That particular movement worsened the pain on examination. Dr. Hauser suggested PRP (Platelet Rich Plasma) Prolotherapy because of Marlene’s desire to get back to marathon training as soon as possible, and he also ordered a hip arthrogram to verify the diagnosis. Marlene refused the hip arthrogram and decided to just get the PRPP because she wanted to get treated for the pain whether it was due to a labral tear or just a ligament injury in the hip.

Marlene has had Prolotherapy to various body parts throughout her athletic career, but she had never had PRPP. The clinical team member drew her blood and processed the PRP, but she was still a little bit nervous. Why? Well, one because the area seemed a little “delicate” to her (front of the hip in the groin area) and two, she had never had PRPP and she heard it was a lot more painful than regular Prolotherapy. Well, Dr. Hauser first gave her some procaine injections, and then did the PRP Prolotherapy. The procaine really helped numb the area ahead of time, so she didn’t have any trouble with the treatment.