Knee Injections – The Basics
If you suffer from osteoarthritis or other knee challenges that impact your quality of life, it may be time to speak with an experienced Phoenixville, PA knee pain doctor at Premier Osteoarthritis Centers of Pennsylvania about whether knee injection therapy could potentially help you recover faster and more completely.
The concept of knee injections is off-putting to many people at first. After all, the idea of having a large needle shoved somewhere near your painful knee (when you may be feeling hesitant to even let a blanket touch your knee because your tissue has become so sensitive) isn’t pleasant. However, the potential benefits of knee injection therapies are so profound for some patients that they far outweigh the potential drawbacks associated with these procedures.
Types of Knee Injections
Not all knee injections work for every patient and not all knee injections work in the same ways. As a result it is important to be honest and to give a complete accounting of both your medical history and symptoms when you meet with the experienced team at Premier Osteoarthritis Centers of Pennsylvania. If you don’t, we won’t be able to objectively recommend the kind of knee injection treatment that may benefit you most completely.
Not so long ago, the primary kinds of knee injections used by knee pain specialists involved synthetic steroids. Alternatively, doctors would aspirate fluid from the knee as opposed to injecting the knee with proactive substances. Both of these procedures are still used by some physicians under certain circumstances and can produce positive results.
However, the standard of care for many osteoarthritis and other chronic pain patients now involves injections of substances that occur naturally in the body. For example, platelet-rich plasma (PRP) injections are now often used to benefit knee pain patients, partially because the body rarely reacts to substances that it has produced naturally.
What to Expect
At the Premier Osteoarthritis Centers of Pennsylvania, we never perform blind injections. It has been estimated that roughly 40 percent of knee injection procedures that are performed blind do not produce any results. Instead of going in blind, we utilize a fluoroscope to guide the injection directly to where it needs to be placed for maximum effect.
We take great pride in the fact that this non-surgical knee pain treatment approach often minimizes patient pain as it promotes healing within minutes of the injection procedure. Our process has been cleared by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, so patients can trust that they are embracing a therapy that is neither experimental nor unproven to assist with achieving the results that knee pain patients desire. As an added bonus, this procedure does not require any recovery time. As a result, you can leave our office to resume your daily activities without having to take any time off of work or away from engagements that are important to you. If you suffer from chronic or acute knee pain, connect with our office to determine whether knee injections could benefit your circumstances.