Can the combination of localized “proliferative therapy” with “minor ozonated autohemotherapy” restore the natural healing process?

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Regenerative injection therapy (RIT), also known as proliferative therapy, has been used for over 30 years in the USA in patients with spinal and peripheral joint and ligamentous pathologies. It involves the injection of mildly irritating medications onto ligaments and tendons, most commonly at origins and insertions. These injections cause a mild inflammatory response which "turns on" the normal healing process and results in the regeneration of these structures. At the same time they strengthen and become less sensitive to pain through a combination of neurolysis of small nerve fibers (C-fibers) and increased stability of the underlying structures. Oxygen/ozone therapy is a well established complementary therapy practiced in many European countries. The ozone dissolves in body fluids and immediately reacts with biomolecules generating messengers responsible for biological and therapeutic activities. This results in an anti inflammatory response, which also results in a similar trophic reaction to that of RIT. It is logical to expect that combining these two modalities would result in enhanced healing and therefore improved clinical outcomes. Oxygen/ozone therapy, accomplished by autohemotherapy (AHT), is performed by either administering ozonated blood intravenously (Major AHT) or via intramuscular route (Minor AHT). These procedures result in stimulation of the immune and healing systems. Our concept is that the local injection of this activated blood injected directly to the ligamentous areas that are also being treated with RIT will act as a direct stimulation to the healing process. In addition, combining this with intravenous major AHT should stimulate the immune system to augment and support this process. RIT and oxygen/ozone therapy have been extensively studied separately. We propose a study of lumbosacral ligamentous pain to explore this therapeutic combination. We hope that this paper will stimulate general interest in this area of medicine and result in investigation of the "interface" between these treatment modalities.