Living with chronic joint pain can be both frustrating and exhausting. Because this pain can cause compromised quality of life and productivity, prioritizing your relief is critical. To manage your joint pain, specialists at Riverview Health can provide you with a complete spectrum of options, including cortisone injections.
Joint pain is typically the result of arthritis, a condition that causes the joints to swell. When this swelling and pain persists for long periods of time the joint can become damaged and begin to deteriorate. Cortisone injections can be helpful to manage the pain and swelling caused by arthritis. Cortisone shots can also treat conditions such as carpal tunnel syndrome, rotator cuff tendonitis, tennis elbow and trigger fingers.
Cortisone injections contain an anti-inflammatory corticosteroid as well as a numbing agent. To administer cortisone, your doctor injects the medication directly into the affected joint. This effective pain management solution offers relief within a few days, and results can last for several weeks to months. Some individuals only need one injection, while others need a series of shots for relief.
However, injections administered over a long period of time can cause loss of cartilage of the joints. For this reason, cortisone injections are not an ideal option to manage arthritis pain in the long term. For example, if your joint pain is a result of a chronic autoimmune condition, such as rheumatoid arthritis, cortisone injections would not be an ideal solution to manage your disease. But cortisone injections could offer short-term relief if your rheumatologist has prescribed disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs) to manage your condition, as DMARDs can take time to offer the full effect.
Ready to meet with one of our orthopedic and sports medicine specialists? To request an appointment with a Riverview Health physician, call 317.565.0505.
Sources: arthritis.org, assh.org, medlineplus.gov/arthritis