Where would you be without your hips and knees? Nowhere! Our hips and knees are an essential part of our skeletal structure that helps us to enjoy everyday activities, which include everything from walking to sitting to standing and to running. So when hip and knee pain are causing a hindrance in your daily life, it might be time to take advantage of minimally-invasive and quick-acting steroid injections for immediate and lasting relief today and in the future.
Think of a steroid injection as a super targeted Band-Aid applied to the exact source of your pain. Steroids (short for corticosteroids) are man-made drugs that are designed to be very similar to cortisol, which is a hormone that the adrenal glands produce naturally. Cortisol is a primary stress hormone that, most importantly when dealing with pain, increases the ability of substances in the body that repair tissues. These specific steroids used to combat pain work by decreasing inflammation and reducing the body’s immune response. Steroids are used to treat a variety of inflammatory diseases and conditions.
Steroid injections are most often injected into joints, including hip, knee, ankle, shoulder, elbow, spine and wrist. Pain management specialists utilize steroid injections to help patients who are suffering from pain in the hip and knee, but patients who experience pain in their shoulders, hands, feet and spine can also benefit. Wherever or however inflammation is causing pain can generally be treated with steroid injections. This includes arthritis, tendonitis, autoimmune disorders, bursitis and more.
Steroids can be injected or orally ingested, but the benefit of the injection is that the steroid can be delivered to the direct location of the source of pain.
The hip is the largest weight-bearing joint in the body, and, as you can imagine, endures a lot of wear and tear every day. In addition to the large ball-and-socket joint that connects the lower body to the torso, the hip is also stabilized by muscles, ligaments, and tendons that help it to function properly. Not only does the hip endure constant use, it can also wear down from extreme use (high-intensity physical exercise, for example) or from age-related deterioration (think osteoarthritis).
The knees are in the same situation. Bending, stretching, getting up from sitting, sitting down from standing, jumping, etc. all put pressure and stress on our knees. The most common causes of knee pain are due to aging, injury, or repeated stress on the knee, with problems ranging from sprained or strained ligaments, cartilage tears, tendonitis and arthritis.
The main benefit of steroid injections is that the medicine is directly administered into the particular area of the body where pain is felt. Like other steroids, it works by calming down the immune system, which reduces inflammation and helps to relieve pain and swelling.
The injection result is two-fold, meaning that if the feeling of pain is resolved after the injection, then the patient and doctor can conclude that the pain itself is coming from that particular joint. However, if pain is still felt, then the source of pain is determined to be caused from another location or issue in the body.
If you are experiencing knee or hip pain, and you either want to avoid surgical options or cannot undergo surgical options, steroid injections could benefit you.
The Texas Pain Care team of pain management specialists believe that it’s important to utilize all non-surgical methods first. So if patients have tried lifestyle changes, diet changes, physical therapy, over-the-counter medications (as prescribed), and still have yet to experience relief, the next best option is steroid injections. Not only do the injections provide immediate pain relief, they can also allow patients to utilize other therapy methods that might not have been comfortable previously, such as exercising.
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A quick visit to your pain management specialist! Steroid injections are given in the doctor’s office, with or without the use of sedation. With the help of a video x-ray device called a “fluoroscope,” a thin needle is injected directly into the area or joint involved, and a mixture of an anesthetic and a corticosteroid is injected that bathes the joint. The entire procedure takes less than an hour.
If the pain is remedied immediately, that proves that the pain was coming from the joint itself and not from another area/issue. Your doctor will advise you to take it easy for the first 24 hours and to avoid any strenuous activity, as the injection site might be sore. More complete relief will be felt up to a few days later as the inflammation is reduced.
While every person’s body responds differently to steroid injections, most can expect to have pain relief last anywhere between a few weeks and a few months. If the pain and inflammation was due to an injury, just one shot should be effective long enough for the body to heal fully!
Another benefit of steroid injections is that, if proven helpful for relieving hip and knee pain, is that the injections can be repeated up to a total of three times in a 12-month period. When used with other therapy methods, patients can expect to enjoy long-lasting pain relief.
With any medical procedure, there are some risks. However, the risks with steroid injections are very minimal and extreme complications are rare. Potential risks could include:
If you’re experiencing hip and knee pain, and would like to treat the pain with the most minimally-invasive methods possible, talk to the Texas Pain Care team in the Sugarland, Missouri City and Houston areas about how steroid injections can benefit you. We aim to help our family of patients enjoy their intended quality of life, and are happy to review all available treatment options that best fit into our patient’s lifestyle. Please click or call to schedule an appointment today!
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