Knee Injection

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Knee injection can be either diagnostic or therapeutic:-

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Diagnostic- If there is uncertainty about where pain is coming from then a local anaesthetic injection into the knee joint will only resolve pain coming from the knee. If the pain goes it is coming from the knee; if the pain does not go, it is not coming from the knee.

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Therapeutic- usually a cortisone (kenalog) and local anaesthetic is used and this reduces the inflammation in the knee joint. the success rate is around 70% but the duration of improvement is very variable (from a few hours to a long term improvement). where a cortisone injection (or two) has not worked Mr Ashworth has found that Synvisc (a synthetic lubricant, hyaluronic acid) has about a 40-50% chance of significantly improving the knee pain.

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Procedure-

The injection is performed in clinic under local anaesthetic

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Risks-

Allergy to the drugs used (Kenalog or marcaine/chirocaine)

Bruising

Injury to a nerve (usually temporary symptoms of pain &/or Numbness)

Low risk of infection. However, if this happens it requires urgent treatment and admission to hospital

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