Evaluation of the Efficacy of Prolotherapy Treatment in Patients With Plantar Fasciitis: a Randomized Double-blind Study

Plantar fasciitis is the most common cause of heel pain and it is diagnosed by clinically. Resting, stretching exercises, weight loss, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and physical therapy methods are used in the treatment. Steroid injection can be applied in patients who do not respond to these treatments. But steroid injection is not a pathology-based treatment, and also can cause serious side effects, such as fat pad atrophy and plantar fascia rupture. At this stage, in patients who do not respond to conservative treatments, new methods such as dextrose prolotherapy and platelet rich plasma may be used instead of steroid injection. In the literature, there is insufficient study showing effect of prolotherapy in patients with plantar fasciitis. Because these studies enrolled small number of patients and lacked controlled design. The investigators design a randomized, double-blind, controlled trial to assess the effect after prolotherapy injection in patients with plantar fasciitis. The participants evaluated with clinically and sonographically. The aim of this study is to compare the pain, function and thickness of proximal plantar fascia in prolotherapy or control group.