Joint injections are used to relieve pain in children and adults with conditions like arthritis. An interventional radiologist guides a needle precisely into the joint and injects a steroid to reduce inflammation and pain.
Types of Joint Injections
The type of injection and frequency of treatment is determined by your child’s arthritis severity and overall health.
We commonly recommend the following joint injections:
- Corticosteroid injections. These are also referred to as cortisone shots. Corticosteroid is an anti-inflammatory medication that can temporarily reduce pain and swelling in the joints.
- Hyaluronic acid injections. These injections are often used to treat children with Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis. Children with arthritis can be deficient in Hyaluronic acid, which naturally occurs in the body. Injecting hyaluronic acid can lubricate larger joints, like knees, to improve functionality.
What to Expect
What to Expect
During the procedure, an interventional radiologist uses live imaging (CT scan, ultrasound or X-ray) to guide a needle to the correct location. In some cases, the radiologist might inject a dye, called contrast, to make the joint more visible.
Injecting a joint normally takes about an hour, including any sedation or anesthesia your child may need.
You can expect the following during your child's joint injection procedure:
- Your child will be given a sedative or put to sleep and monitored closely by an anesthesiologist.
- The interventional radiologist will guide a needle to the proper location and inject a dye to make the joint more visible through imaging. If the procedure is being performed to diagnose or evaluate a condition, dye is all that is needed.
- The interventional radiologist will use live imaging to inject a steroid exactly where the joint is inflamed.
- Once the procedure is complete, your child will be taken to a recovery room to wake up. There may be some pain and swelling in the joint, so he or she may be given pain medicine. If a steroid was injected, it can take a week or more for the original joint pain to subside.
- Your child will go home the same day.
Joint injections do carry small risks. Sometimes a child has bleeding where the needle went into the joint. Rarely, the joint can become infected or your child can have an allergic reaction to the dye used for an arthrogram.
Any use of steroids carries a slight risk of skin atrophy (thinning of the skin). However, using interventional radiology to inject the steroid greatly reduces the chance of skin atrophy.
Key Points to Remember
Key Points to Remember
- Joint injections are used to relieve pain and inflammation in joints.
- Your child will be sedated or under anesthesia during a joint injection procedure.
- Your child will be able to go home the same day after the joint injection.
- It may take up to a week for injected steroids to relieve your child’s joint pain.