The treatment was first described by George S. Hackett as Prolotherapy is described and called Scelrotherapy by others.
Below is an abstract from the medical journal Knee Surgery, Sports Traumatology, Arthroscopy in it, researchers Alfredson and Ohberg noted “injections with the sclerosing substance Polidocanol have the potential to reduce tendon pain during activity in patients with chronic painful mid-portion Achilles tendinopathy.”
Polidocanol, is a medication that is typically used as an injection into varicose veins to cause these veins to shrink in size.
Alfredson H; Ohberg L Sclerosing injections to areas of neo-vascularisation reduce pain in chronic Achilles tendinopathy: a double-blind randomised controlled trial. Knee Surg Sports Traumatol Arthrosc May 2005, 13(4) p338-44.
Injection of small amount of polidocanol were targeted using, ultrasound and color doppler guidance, to areas of abnormal small blood vessels found just outside the tendon on the anterior (deeper) side. The control group received anesthetic injection to the same areas. 5/10 patients in the polidocanol group responded to treatment within 2 treatments and the additional 5 responded to additional treatment. 0/10 of the anethetic patients responded to 2 treatments, but this group then received polidocanol injection and 9/10 responded.
Local injections of the sclerosing substance Polidocanol has been demonstrated to give good clinical results in a pilot study on patients with chronic Achilles tendinopathy. In this study, 20 consecutive patients (9 men and 11 women, mean age 50 years) with chronic painful mid-portion Achilles tendinopathy were randomised to injection treatment with either Polidocanol (5 mg/ml) (group A) or Lidocaine hydro-chloride (5 mg/ml) + Adrenaline (5 microg/ml) (group B). Both substances have a local anaesthetic effect, but Polidocanol also has a sclerosing effect. The patients and the treating physician were blinded to the substance injected. The short-term effects were evaluated after a maximum of two treatments, 3-6 weeks apart. Before treatment, all patients had structural tendon changes and neo-vascularisation demonstrated with US and color doppler. Under US and color doppler-guidance, the injections targeted the area of neo-vascularisation just outside the ventral part of the tendon. For evaluation, the patients recorded the severity of Achilles tendon pain during tendon loading activity, before and after treatment, on a VAS. Patient’s satisfaction with treatment was also assessed. At follow-up (mean 3 months) after a maximum of two treatments, 5/10 patients in group A were satisfied with the treatment and had a significantly reduced level of tendon pain (p < 0.005). In group B, no patient was satisfied with treatment. In the pain-free tendons, but not in the painful tendons, neo-vascularisation was absent after treatment. After completion of the study, treatment with Polidocanol injections (Cross-over in group B and additional treatments in group A) resulted in 10/10 and 9/10 satisfied patients in group A and B, respectively. In summary, injections with the sclerosing substance Polidocanol have the potential to reduce tendon pain during activity in patients with chronic painful mid-portion Achilles tendinopathy.