Effectiveness of dextrose prolotherapy injection on chronic knee osteoarthritis patients

Background: Osteoarthritis (OA) of the knee is a chronic, degenerative, and disruptive joint condition that frequently reduces quality of life and imposes a significant socioeconomic burden on patients and caregivers. The purpose of this study is to compare pain scale and functional ratings before and after dextrose prolotherapy injection in individuals with persistent osteoarthritis of the knee. Methods: This study is an observational analytical study using retrospective data involving 61 samples of patients with a diagnosis of knee osteoarthritis based on the clinical criteria of the American College of Rheumatology who were injected with 20% dextrose prolotherapy 6 ml intra-articularly and 12.5% dextrose 6 ml peri-articularly. Each patient was injected with prolotherapy 4 times with an interval of 2 weeks at the same injection point. Patients were evaluated for pain scale and functional score at pre-injection, 6 weeks, and 20 weeks. All data processing was performed using SPSS version 26, with a significance level (p-value) set at 0.05. Results: Demographic characteristics of this study: subjects aged 45 to 75 years with an average of 62.38 +/- 8.14 years. 85.2% of subjects were female, 67.2% of subjects had a BMI >= 25 kg/m2, and 75.4% of subjects experienced pain for more than 1 year. There was a significant difference in pain scale and functional score (p-value <0.05) at pre-injection compared to 6 weeks and 20 weeks. Conclusion: Dextrose prolotherapy injection is effective in improving pain and functional improvement in patients with chronic knee osteoarthritis patients.