What are joint injections?
Joint injections provide a way to treat joint pain at the source. Before administering your joint injections, the team at Athens Spine Center might aspirate the joint, or drain it of fluid. The joint injections contain a mixture of two components that work in different ways to provide relief for your symptoms:
Local anesthesia
Local anesthesia is a numbing medication that acts quickly to ease your joint pain at the moment.
Cortisone
Cortisone, a type of steroid, helps relieve inflammation in your joint. Because inflammation contributes to pain, relief of inflammation results in pain relief too.
What do joint injections treat?
Joint injections can ease pain in your joints. Your joints are places where two bones connect, and many of them are mobile. Joint pain can come from a specific injury like a muscle strain, wear-and-tear over time, or a degenerative disease like arthritis. The team at Athens Spine Center might recommend joint injections to treat pain in your:
- Shoulder
- Elbow
- Wrist
- Hip
- Knee
- The facet joints in your spine
A joint injection can provide immediate and lasting relief for your injured or worn joint.
What should I expect during my joint injection procedure?
When you come to Athens Spine Center for your joint injection, you can expect the procedure to take between 10 and 20 minutes. During the procedure, you lay on your stomach on a table. The team cleans your skin near the joint before they begin and inject it with local anesthesia first.
Next, the team uses a special X-ray called a fluoroscope to view the inner structures and guide the joint injection safely into the painful joint. Then, they inject the mixture of cortisone and local anesthesia.
How long does joint injection pain relief last?
Once the numbness from the local anesthesia wears off, your joint might feel sore for a few days. If the soreness bothers you, placing ice on the area and taking over-the-counter pain relievers can help make you more comfortable.
Once the soreness goes away, it’s impossible to predict how long your pain relief will last because everyone responds to joint injections differently. The ease of inflammation from a joint injection can last for months or even years. If you’re happy with the results, the team at Athens Spine Center might recommend future joint injections.
For more information about joint injections and joint pain, call Athens Spine Center today.