Effectiveness of prolotherapy in shoulder labral tears
WorkSafeBC Evidence-Based Practice Group, Martin CW
Record ID 32018013506
English
Authors' objectives:
To determine whether there is any evidence on the effectiveness of prolotherapy in treating shoulder labral tears.
Authors' results and conclusions:
162 published studies were identified through the search - 16 from MEDLINE, 25 from CINAHL, 11 from CENTRAL, and 110 from EMBASE. After duplicates were removed, 153 published studies were identified through the search - 16 from MEDLINE, 21 from CINAHL, 11 from CENTRAL, and 105 from EMBASE. Upon examination of the titles and abstracts of these published studies, there were four studies thought to be relevant to prolotherapy use in treating shoulder labral tears; 93 were excluded due to incorrect population, 27 due to incorrect interventions, 26 due to incorrect study design, and 3 were animal/cell culture studies. Of the four studies that were retrieved in full, four were excluded due to incorrect population. A manual search of the references from the studies selected for full text screening revealed one additional study. Therefore, there was only one study relevant to this systematic review. Hauser et al. (2013) is a non-controlled questionnaire-based study whereby 33 patients with labral tear underwent treatment with intra-articular injections of hypertonic dextrose. Prolotherapy consisting of 15% Dextrose was injected in thirty different locations including infraspinatus and teres minor tendons. They reported an average of 3.4 sessions per patient with 3 – 6 week intervals between sessions with a mean follow-up time of 16 months. All 31 patients who reported pain at baseline experienced statistically significant pain relief compared to preintervention in pain at resting, pain at activity and pain during exercise scores. There is only one low quality case series (level of evidence 4) reporting on the efficacy of prolotherapy for the treatment of shoulder labral tears. It should be noted that selection bias, potential positive effect of co-intervention, and methodological inconsistencies cannot be excluded from the reported outcomes. Therefore, there is still no conclusive evidence reporting on the efficacy of prolotherapy in the treatment of shoulder labral tears.
Authors' methods:
A systematic literature search was started on April 24, 2024. This literature search was conducted on commercial medical literature databases. The search was done by employing combinations of keywords. No other limitations on were implemented in any of these searches. A manual search was also planned and conducted on the references of the articles that were retrieved in full.
Details
Project Status:
Completed
URL for project:
https://www.worksafebc.com/en/about-us/research-services/evidence-based-medicine-and-systematic-reviews
Year Published:
2024
English language abstract:
An English language summary is available
Publication Type:
Mini HTA
Country:
Canada
MeSH Terms
- Shoulder Injuries
- Prolotherapy
- Rotator Cuff Injuries
- Shoulder Impingement Syndrome
Keywords
- Prolotherapy
- injection
- glucose
- glycerol
- dextrose
- shoulder
- dislocation
- joint
Contact
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
This is a bibliographic record of a published health technology assessment from a member of INAHTA or other HTA producer. No evaluation of the quality of this assessment has been made for the HTA database.