Prolotherapy: A Great Alternative Treatment for Groin Pain

YOU HAVE GROIN PAIN FOR A REASON AND THE REASON ISN'T MUSCLE WEAKNESS

The main treatment for chronic groin pain is adductor muscle strengthening (also known as physiotherapy). In my opinion, this doesn't cure the problem and often exacerbates it because chronic groin pain is rarely an adductor issue.

Adductor muscle strain heals very quickly with physiotherapy. If the adductor muscles are in chronic spasm, it isn't because they are weak or tight, it is because they are contracting against an unstable base. That base is the pubic symphysis. Prolotherapy to the pubic symphysis in four out of five cases, stabilizes the area and the adductor muscle spasms stop.

CHRONIC GROIN PAIN IS ALMOST ALWAYS DUE TO PELVIC LAXITY

Chronic groin pain is almost always due to a weakness in the ligament support (ligament laxity) of the pelvis. This could be the pubic symphysis, sacrotuberous, iliolumbar or sacroiliac ligaments. If a person has groin pain but also back pain then all of these ligaments are treated. If the person just has groin pain but tenderness over the ligaments in the back then the lower back is typically treated also with Prolotherapy. Prolotherapy to the injured or stretched out ligaments will cause them to proliferate and tighten. Once they are tightened the muscles spasms stop because they do not need to stabilize the areas anymore. Once the ligaments are strengthened they can provide stability to the front of the pelvis (pubis) and the back of the pelvis (sacroiliac joint). The muscles that attach to these areas then will relax because they can contract against a stable base.

PROLOTHERAPY IS THE ANSWER TO THE REASONS FOR CHRONIC GROIN PAIN

Chronic groin pain is typically due to one of the following reasons:

1. Pubic Symphysis injury
2. Pubic Symphysis Diasthesis
3. Pubic Ligament Sprain
4. Iliolumbar Ligament Sprain
5. Sacroiliac Ligament Sprain
6. Sacrotuberous Ligament Sprain
7. Lumbar Degenerative Disc Disease

Prolotherapy helps all of the above conditions. Prolotherapy stimulates the injured area to repair. Since the area becomes repaired and stronger, Prolotherapy is often curative for chronic painful groin conditions.

Questions from our Blogs

Peripheral Neuropathy?

I have had pubic/groin pain on my left side for 9 months now. I have had a cat scan, x-rays, MRI and bone scan and the doctors all say they are normal, except they found a tumor in my left thigh that was not the cause of my pain and I had to have it removed. The pain is not gone, it is worse since surgery and to top it off I now have nerve damage to my right leg apparently from them rolling me onto my right side to perform the surgery.

I am extremely frustrated since no one can find the cause. I am at the point where I can no longer even go to the grocery store and be on my feet that long. I take pain pills and the latest diagnosis is that I have peripheral neuropathy, which I do not agree with.

How can I find out what is wrong with me?

A. I can sense your frustration...most of the time we find unresolved groin pain to be weakness or injury to the pubic symphysis. The adductor muscles and abdominal muscles attach to the pubis so contraction of these muscles can give pain when the pubis is injured. Injury to the pubic symphysis disc or ligaments doesn't show up on x-ray. I would recommend that you see a Prolotherapist.

Answer by Ross A. Hauser, M.D.

Is it sport's hernia?

A patient brought his son, highly touted baseball prospect, into the office. His baseball career was abruptly halted when chronic groin pain occurred. He was told it was a hernia, so he followed the doctor's advice and had surgery for it. That didn't help. They next told him it was caused by an iliopsoas muscle strain. So he worked with various therapies to relieve the muscle strain. Those did not help either. His back was finally x-rayed, where they found some degenerative disc changes. At this time, the team doctor began talking surgery.

This case brings up a good point for any athlete whose diagnosis continues to change. Nobody knows what is wrong with you! Go to a Prolotherapist or Orthopedic Medicine specialist.

Orthopedic Medicine is a discipline in which the physicians are specialists in all of the non-surgical techniques for treating chronic pain. This includes, but is not limited to, manipulation, massage, and physiotherapy techniques, as well as the various injection techniques for pain, including Prolotherapy.

The patient's son had significant tenderness over the pubic symphysis, which was expected. His iliopsoas muscle was also very tender and he had some degenerative changes in the lower lumbar spine on MRI. The joints beneath the iliopsoas muscle are the hip joint and the lumbosacral junction where the degeneration was located. Palpation of the hip joint did not produce pain, but a positive jump sign was elicited at the iliolumbar ligaments, lumbosacral ligaments, and sacroiliac ligaments.

Many athletes are subjected to hernia surgeries for groin pain, which has nothing to do with a hernia. We have bailed out many a surgeon who referred patients to us (or the patients came on their own) after the hernia surgery failed to "cure" them of their groin pain.

Groin pain coming from an iliolumbar ligament injury or dysfunctions at the thoracolumbar junction, may at times be mistaken for hernia injury. Athletes are again cautioned to rule out all of the possible causes of groin pain, and consult a doctor who performs Prolotherapy when such symptoms are present.

by Ross Hauser, M.D.