News & Updates

Injections (Joint Fluid Therapy)

Injections
If conservative treatment options are not stopping your pain, before you consider surgery, consider pain-relieving injections.

Hyaluronic Acid
The type of injections we do most often at The Center for Joint Therapy is Image Guided Viscosupplementation with Hyaluronates. More simply, Joint Fluid Therapy.

Joint Fluid Therapy is a series of injections of Hyaluronic Acid, which is a natural lubricant, shock absorber and pain inhibitor. We use a fluorscope (live motion x-ray) to insure the fluid goes into the joint space in your knee, the only place where it will be effective.

Most patients experience total pain relief after a few treatments. The process can be repeated every six months, for as long as it's needed, or until it's no longer effective and surgery is necessary.

For complete information on this treatment, including if it's right for you, see the Joint Fluid Therapy page.

Cortisone
Cortisone is an anti-inflammatory steroid that is injected into the knee joint. Cortisone injections are used only when inflammation is present. The pain relief may last three months or more, and it's rarely used for chronic osteoarthritis. The injections can be repeated every three months, but we don't recommend more than two or three in a year, as repeated injections over the long term may be harmful.

Cortisone masks the pain, so patients have to be very careful not to over-use their knee joint, even though their knees are feeling better.

We may use the fluoroscope to guide cortisone injections for some patients, when necessary.