Joint Injections

Joint Injections

Joint injections involve injecting medicine directly into the joint. These injections can help diagnose the source of pain, as well as alleviate the discomfort. At the Orthopedic Center of Vero Beach we perform:

• Hip joint injections
• Knee joint injections
• Shoulder joint injections
• Elbow joint injections
• Ankle joint injections, etc.

There are two purposes of joint injections, diagnostic and pain relief. Diagnostic joint injections place numbing medicine into the joint. The amount of immediate pain relief experienced will help confirm or deny the joint as a source of pain. If complete pain relief is achieved while the hip joint is numb it means this joint is likely to be the source of pain.

With pain relief joint injections time-release cortisone is also injected into these joints along with the numbing medication, to reduce inflammation, which can often provide long term pain relief. Fluoroscopy (live X-ray) is used in some joint injections for guidance in properly targeting and placing the needle, and for avoiding nerve or other injury. Joint injections only takes a few minutes, but the overall procedure may take between thirty and sixty minutes.