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Dr. Darrow’s Posts This Week

July 6, 2012
Update: Avoiding Shoulder Surgery
Update: July 5, 2012 Is shoulder surgery the only answer for the athlete who wants a quick return to their sport? To many athletes the answer is yes because the alternative recommendations from their orthopedic specialist of ice, rest, physical therapy and wait six months is not the option they want. Isn’t surgery the fastest way back?

The importance of an experienced PRP physician
Every day we receive a phone call or an email from a patient who is convinced prolotherapy or Platelet Rich Plasma therapy will not work for their pain. The main reason? They had the treatment at an office where the doctor administering the treatment may not have been as “expert,” as they thought. In the hands of an experienced physician, these therapies offer a wonderful chance to alleviate back and joint

Update: Hip Surgery
Hip Bone Shaving In Athletes Grows Popular Despite Doubt. Updated 12/9/2011 – New research warns about metal-on-metal replacements Running Activity After Hip Resurfacing Arthroplasty Updated 7/5/2012 – Reduced expectations Many times a patient will come into our office and say that they were told that they could resume their running after a hip resurfacing procedure.

July 2
A Side Effect of Disc Surgery – Fear of Movement
Patients with back pain have many common concerns in common. One is that they are afraid to move because of the pain. Surgery is suppose to take care of this fear. Researchers followed 97 patients following disc surgery looking for a post-surgical occurrence of kinesiophobia “fear of movement.” What they found was surprising. The researchers reported: “Half of the patients suffered from kinesiophobia

Platelet Rich Plasma and Prolotherapy after Knee Replacement
Over the years we have seen many patients following knee replacement surgery who still had knee pain. Knee replacement therapy offers a lot of hope to some patients and equally they have high expectations of what their new knee will offer them. Expectations are sometimes not met. In one study, researchers examined knee replacement patients and found that “Despite high expectations, there were statistically and clinically

Unnecessary Disc Surgery
You have a sudden pain in your lower back area. A few days goes by and finally the pain has become sufficient enough to warrant a trip to your doctor. At the doctor’s, your complaint of back pain is heard. If the pain is severe, your doctor may prescribe anti-inflammatory medications and/or pain medications. If the pain is chronic and severe in nature, an MRI may be ordered.

June 30, 2012
Cortisone or PRP (Platelet Rich Plasma) Therapy?
It is true that corticosteroids, like cortisone, are powerful anti-inflammatory substances. They are not used to relieve pain, but rather reduce inflammation, which in turn can lessen a patient’s level of discomfort. Cortisone is often injected into the area of injury or pain like joints or tendons. Examples of conditions for which local cortisone injections are used include inflammation of a bursa (bursitis), a tendon-

An alternative to steroid for lower back pain
One of the most common causes a low back pain specialist will see in their office is the pain caused by the sacroiliac joint (SI). The sacroiliac joints connect the spine and the hips at the sacrum. The sacrum is a triangular shaped bone at the bottom of your spine. It sits between the iliac bones, your “right and left hips”, to complete the pelvis. Holding the pelvis or pelvic girdle together is a network of ligaments -

Ultrasound guided injections to the knee
When deciding on Prolotherapy or PRP injections to the knee, in our opinion, it is best to seek a physician who utilizes ultrasound guided injections. The purpose of using an ultrasound to guide your injections is so that you and your doctor can see the actual target, and watch the solution deposited there. It has been proven in studies that blind injections are often put into the wrong tissue and miss the target.

June 26, 2012
PRP, Hyalgan, Supartz, Euflexxa, Orthovisc, Hyaluronin, Synvisc
Updated June 24, 2012 Autologous (from your own blood) PRP injections showed more and longer efficacy than HA injections (Hyaluronic acid (Sometimes referred to by the brand name) Hyalgan, Supartz, Euflexxa, Orthovisc, Hyaluronin, Synvisc) in reducing pain and symptoms and recovering articular function. 1 Synisc is a commonly prescribed injection for osteoarthritis of the knee.

Hip and Knee Replacement Long-Term Survival of the artificial joint and the patient!
We see patients almost every day waiting for a joint replacement. They have it scheduled, the doctor has told them they need it, they tell them they have bone on bone arthritis; the cartilage has worn down, etc. When the patient comes in, we do a physical examination and we see if surgery can be avoided. For most we use Prolotherapy and/or Platelet Rich Plasma Therapy (PRP) and we can fix their hip and knee pain.

The sacroiliac joint (SI pain)
One of the most common causes of low back pain that we see in our office is the pain caused by the sacroiliac joint (SI). Typically a patient will come in after visiting a physician who prescribed NSAIDS or provided a cortisone injection. They may have also visited a chiropractor, a physical therapist,and a massage therapist. All obviously with limited results. Those who come with an MRI will usually provide a film showing

Prolotherapy: Emerging Medical Therapy for Arthritis and Joint Pain

From The Journal of Longevity.
Marc Darrow, a Los Angeles physician, is one of many doctors in the U.S. who offer an amazing new treatment called Prolotherapy. Its name is derived from the word “proliferation,” and its goal is to stimulate the growth of new tissue, repairing damage to worn-out joints and relieving pain and discomfort. First, the exact location of the pain is found using an acupuncture needle. Then an injection of diluted dextrose and an anesthetic is given. The anesthetic relieves the pain, while the dextrose stimulates the body’s healing response.

It does this by acting as a “shock agent,” drawing water from superficial cells and Read more

Understanding PRP (Platelet Rich Plasma)

Although PRP (Platelet-Rich Plasma) Therapy has been around since the mid-1990s many people are still unaware of this beneficial treatment.

Various fields of medicine, including dentistry, neurosurgery, wound healing, and orthopedics, have only just begun to scrape the surface of the long-term and ongoing benefits that can result from employing this valuable therapy.

PRP (Platelet Rich Plasma) Ultrasound-guided injection of the Knee

What is it? A Quick Lesson on Blood
In a nutshell, a PRP injection delivers a high concentration of endogenous (your own “home-grown”) platelets Read more