What are Joint Injections?
Joint injections are a potential treatment approach for persistent joint pain. The Beaufort Orthopaedic Sports & Spine team might suggest joint injections if your symptoms aren't improving with noninvasive treatments like physical therapy, rest, medication, and bracing or splinting.
If your joint pain isn't responding to these treatments or methods that used to be effective are no longer so, joint injections are a way of improving joint health and delaying the need for surgery.
What Problems Can Joint Injections Treat?
Joint injections can treat the most common causes of joint pain, including:
- Osteoarthritis
- Rheumatoid arthritis
- Gout
- Tendinitis
- Bursitis
- Sacroiliac joint dysfunction
Joint injections are potentially effective for any joints, but those that most often require treatment include your knees, ankles, wrists, shoulders, elbows, the base of your big thumb, the sacroiliac joint in your pelvis, and the small joints in your hands and feet.
The facet joints that link the vertebrae together in your spine can also benefit from joint injections.
What Do Joint Injections Contain?
There are two key types of joint injections:
- Anti-Inflammatory Joint Injections:Â Anti-inflammatory joint injections contain steroids, which are effective at reducing tissue inflammation and joint pain. They might also contain a local anesthetic, which can help isolate the cause of joint pain during the diagnostic stage as well as mute joint pain temporarily.
- Viscosupplementation:Â Viscosupplementation uses a different approach than anti-inflammatory joint injections. The active ingredient is hyaluronic acid (HA), which is a natural lubricant. Injecting HA into your joints helps bones affected by arthritis to slide over each other, preventing friction.
What Happens When I Have Joint Injections?
Joint injections are an outpatient procedure — you don't need a general anesthetic, and you should be able to go home the same day.
To ensure the medication gets to precisely the right place in your joints, your provider uses digital imaging technology like ultrasound or fluoroscopy (a real-time moving X-ray). The digital imaging guides needle placement and helps minimize damage to the surrounding tissues.
If you think joint injections could help with your persistent pain, call Beaufort Orthopaedic Sports & Spine today to schedule a consultation or book an appointment online.
