Authors' objectives: To determine whether there is any evidence to support the efficacy/effectiveness of prolotherapy in treating (wrist) sprain/strain/repetitive strain injury (RSI).

Authors' results and conclusions: No published study on the application of prolotherapy in treating RSI, on the wrist or other part of the extremities from initial search. One published study was identified from further searches and identified further thirty-four published studies. Hence, overall, thirty-five studies were identified in this systematic review but upon further examination on the titles and abstracts of these thirty-five studies, five studies were thought to be relevant and were retrieved in full for further appraisal. Of these five studies that were retrieved in full, one study was a case report (level of evidence 4) on tendinosis and two studies were an expert review (level of evidence 5) and did not provide any relevant data and will not be discussed further. No further study was identified from manual searches. In a case report study (level of evidence 4) by Ada and Yavus reported on the application of prolotherapy to treat medial collateral ligament (MCL) in a rugby player. Patient received prolotherapy and exercise therapy where they were pain free in 21 days. An abstract by Kajbaf et al presented the application of prolotherapy in treating chronic medial collateral ligament (MCL) sprain which showed promise in improvement in pain reduction. At present, there was no study reporting the application of prolotherapy in treating RSI on the wrist or any other parts of the extremities. Also, there was no published study reporting the application of prolotherapy in treating sprain/strain on the wrist. At present, there is some evidence, in the form of two, low level (level of evidence 4) low quality (due to potential selection bias as well as potential effect of co intervention), case report on the effectiveness of prolotherapy in treating knee sprains (acute or chronic). Based on these two case reports, it should be noted on the variability of the reported prolotherapy protocols.

Authors' methods: A systematic and comprehensive literature search was conducted on March 6, 2024. The search was done on commercial medical literature databases. No limitation, such as on the language and year of publication, was implemented in this search and manual search, on the references of the articles that were retrieved in full, was also done.

Project Status: Completed

URL for project: https://www.worksafebc.com/en/about-us/research-services/evidence-based-medicine-and-systematic-reviews

Year Published: 2024

URL for published report: https://www.worksafebc.com/en/resources/health-care-providers/guides/efficacy-effectiveness-prolotherapy-treating-wrist-sprain-rsi?lang=en

English language abstract: An English language summary is available

Publication Type: Mini HTA

Country: Canada

Organisation Name: WorkSafeBC

Contact Address: 6591 Westminster Highway, Richmond, BC, V7C 1C6 Canada. Tel: 604-231-8417; Fax: 604-279-7698

Contact Name: ebpg@worksafebc.com

Contact Email: ebpg@worksafebc.com

Copyright: WorkSafe BC