We offer steroid injections for joint inflammation and soft tissue problems in several areas of the body, as well as hyaluronic acid (HA) injections to relieve pain in an osteoarthritic knee joint.
For knee pain and inflammation, a 30-minute appointment is booked in with Dr Alder or Dr De Burca. This will give you time to discuss the best injection treatment for your knee issue and if appropriate, it will be administered the same day.
Steroid medicines are also known as corticosteroids. They are a type of medicine that works by reducing inflammation in your body. This can help if you have swelling and pain.
A doctor will inject a steroid injection directly into a painful or swollen joint or into the soft tissue around it. Inside the joint, steroids act against substances that cause inflammation and damage your tissues. A steroid injection into the injured area can also release pressure, which helps with pain and swelling.
Steroid injections may not cure the underlying problem or condition that affects your joint. But they may ease your symptoms. They’re often used alongside other treatments such as other medicines and physiotherapy. If you’re having physiotherapy, steroid injections may allow you to cope with it better and get more out of it.
The doctor uses a local anaesthetic along with the steroid for the injection and this will stop any pain that you may have during the injection.
They’ll inject the medicines into the inflamed area of your joint. Our doctors do not use ultrasound as they are fully proficient and experienced in guiding the needle into the right spot. You may feel a tightness or pressure when you have the injection.
Sometimes, the doctor may remove (aspirate) any fluid in the joint during the same procedure. They’ll use a syringe to do this. It can make your joint more comfortable, particularly in the case of swollen knees.
As the local anaesthetic wears off, the pain in your joint may initially be worse than before you had the injection. This pain is due to inflammation caused by the injection itself. It may last for a day or two. The following tips may help you manage the pain.
You will start to get the maximum benefit of the steroid injection from 2 weeks onwards. Depending on the reason for the steroid injection, some patients will only require one and this resolves their problem. For other patients, the steroid injection may give a few months of pain relief, but then it will start to wear off and another injection may be required. In a small number of patients, the steroid injection may not give pain relief for very long or even not work at all.
You are allowed to drive immediately after the injection, but you may find it more uncomfortable and therefore you may want to arrange for friends or family to drive you home if possible.
You should aim to rest the affected joint for a few days afterwards. If you have had a knee injection, you can walk around, but do not take part in any intense exercise for at least a week.
If you are due to take part in a sports competition or race, we would advise to have the injection no sooner than 4 weeks before the event.
Another steroid injection can be administered into the same joint, but there normally has to be a gap of 12 weeks.
If you require a steroid injection into a different joint, then a gap is not required.
Generally, it’s best not to have more than four steroid injections per year into any one joint. This is because there’s a chance any more than that could damage your joint.
DUROLANE is a unique, single-injection hyaluronic acid therapy that provides long-lasting pain relief from knee osteoarthritis. Hyaluronic acid (HA) in the knee acts as a lubricant and shock-absorber.
Introduced worldwide in 2001, DUROLANE has been tested in more clinical studies than any other single-injection hyaluronic therapy on the market. It is proven safe for repeated courses of therapy and provides longer-lasting knee pain relief versus steroid injections.
CINGAL is a single-injection treatment for knee osteoarthritis that combines a corticosteroid and hyaluronic acid (HA). The corticosteroid component provides rapid pain and inflammation relief, while the high-concentration HA component lubricates and cushions the joint for sustained benefits. This dual-action approach aims to offer both immediate and long-lasting relief for symptoms like pain, swelling, and stiffness.
A single injection of DUROLANE can improve osteoarthritis related knee pain and mobility difficulties for up to 6 months.
You will start to notice the full effect of the DUROLANE injection from 4 weeks onwards. DUROLANE treats knee osteoarthritis by temporarily restoring hyaluronic acid to the fluid in your knee. The diminished amount of hyaluronic acid in your knee is one of the causes of your knee pain.
With CINGAL, every patient’s experience is slightly different. For some, pain relief happens almost immediately, while it may take a few days for others. In a clinical study, CINGAL patients experienced statistically significant reduction in knee pain in the first week
In a Cingal clinical study, significant knee pain relief was sustained through 6 months. Although there were no time points measured after 26 weeks, clinical results show that the effects of Cingal lasted and appeared to get stronger at 6 months, allowing patients to continue to experience maximum pain relief.
You are allowed to drive immediately after a DUROLANE OR CINGAL injection, but you may find it more uncomfortable and therefore you may want to arrange for friends or family to drive you home if possible.
You should aim to rest the affected joint for a few days afterwards. You can walk around, but do not take part in any intense exercise for at least a week.
If you are due to take part in a sports competition or race, we would advise to have the injection no sooner than 4 weeks before the event.
DUROLANE is clinically proven to be safe, even following repeated injections. If you have found the injection has helped for a few months, then another injection can be administered when the first one starts to wear off.
A study of patients who had undergone knee replacement surgery published in 2015 found that prior treatment with hyaluronic acid injections postponed their need for knee replacement surgery. In this claims study, the more courses of hyaluronic acid treatment the patients had received, the longer the time was between their initial diagnosis of osteoarthritis and their knee replacement operation. Patients without hyaluronic acid treatment had their knee replacement surgery after an average of 9 months. Patients who received 5 or more courses of hyaluronic acid treatment delayed their knee replacement operation by an average of 3.6 years.
The safety of receiving a repeat injection of CINGAL was confirmed in a follow up clinical study. In this study, patients received a second injection six months after their initial injection. Repeated treatments can be performed as directed by the doctor.
If you have any questions or would like to book an appointment, please feel free to fill in the form below and we will be in touch as soon as possible. Alternatively, you can also call us on 01202 761150 or email reception@dorsetprivategp.co.uk
For an appointment or enquiry regarding any of our clinics please email reception@dorsetprivategp.co.uk
Some appointments can be booked online – GP Consultations, Driver Medicals, Peri-Menopause & Menopause Consultations and Sexual Health Consultations.
Dorset Private GP Ltd
7 Poole Road, Bournemouth, BH2 5QR
CQC REGISTRATION 1-9038293527
Company Number 11893760
