General Management
Heat and ice along with medications and creams that you can buy from the pharmacy are what we usually start with to manage long term joint pain.
Bursa Injection of the Shoulder
This injection can help for shoulder bursitis that has not gotten better with medications and physical therapy
Steroid Injection of the Shoulder
This injection can provide 3-6 months of relief of shoulder pain that has not gotten better with physical therapy and medications
Steroid Injection of the Knee
This injection is done for pain that is from degenerative joint disease or “arthritis”. It can provide 3-6 months of pain reduction (on average).
Steroid Injection of the Hip
We use ultrasound for all of our joint injections as this does allow a greater accuracy of placement.
Sacroiliac Joint Injection
The sacroiliac joint (SI Joint) can cause pain on one side of your back that sometimes wraps around to the front and goes a little way down the leg. This injection can help to reduce pain for 3-6 months on average.
Genicular Nerve Block (Knee)
This is a test to see if the nerves surrounding your knee are the ones responsible for sending the pain signals to your brain. We put a tiny bit of numbing medicine on three nerves and then you measure your pain every hour that day. If your pain is reduced by 80% then you may be a candidate for an ablation (See below).
Genicular Nerve Ablation (Knee)
If a test injection around the genicular nerves (See genicular nerve block) reduces your knee pain by 80% we can then perform an ablation. This is where we apply energy to the nerves that are causing some of the pain in your knee, this energy makes it so the nerve will stop sending the pain signals and your pain levels will decrease. These procedures can be effective for 6-12 months.
Sciatic Nerve Block
We would perform this injection if you are having pain that starts in your bottom and shoots down the back of your leg. We can either put the medicine around the sciatic nerve or in the muscle that sits right on top of the nerve. This usually provides 3-6 months of relief.
