Knee injections for osteo-arthritis

[Frecossais]

Lat year I had a cortisone injection in my knee to allow some freedom from pain and easier movement. The rheumatologist would only inject one knee, (this was in England), so I paid privately to have the other knee injected. The relief only lasted around 3 months, and was judged not effective enough to repeat.

I have heard about other injections of a kind of oil injected into the knee joint, and have googled to find out about them, but the info is confusing. I know that some people in France have a series of 3 injections a year of this oil substance, and that keeps them mobile and pain-free. Can anyone give me an idea of what these injections contain, how often they are administered and how well or not they work.

I've mentioned them to my GP who hasn't heard of them, probably because they don't seem to be available on the NHS.

Also are there criteria for having the injections?

I would be very grateful if anyone can help me on this.

[idun]

Is this hyaluronic acid?

Plenty of articles about it, including:-

http://www.foxnews.com/health/2012/06/12/study-injections-ineffective-for-knee-arthritis/

I have never heard of it. I know that in spite of very bad knees, I cannot have normal injections in my knees or new knees. No idea if this would help me, but I shall ask.

[Frecossais]

Yes Idun, it is hyaluronic acid. there are 3 types of this kind of injection as far as I can make out: Synvisc, Hyalgan and Euflexxa. Some people seem to have rather extreme reactions to them, others get relief from pain and more mobility, (I've been trawling the internet.)

Also found an newspaper article about a woman whose hospital trust first approved then disallowed injections like these. It seems not enough research has been done into whether they work for enough people according to medical opinion in GB.

As for me the next step will be a knee replacement, or two, I wouldn't mind giving the injections a try. I'm sure someone on this forum said once that he or she had them every year, and I wondered what their experience was.

www.webmd.com/osteoarthritis/guide/hyaluronan-injections-knee

Sorry, forgot to make a note of Betty's way of making a link live.

[idun]

I shall ask the Dr I saw recently about these injections.

He was a very interesting older Dr who had firm views on a lot of current treatments and operations. Highly qualified and an NHS adviser.

He told me that he would not give me cortisone injections and that I should never get my knees replaced. Not that someone else would not do these very things, but the nature of my particular problem is anterior. He said that I would be a very unhappy bunny if I had such things done as they would not help and my expectations would be great........... he is right, my expectations would have been great!

At my age I know lots of people with new knees and having injections, most are very happy, but the odd one is sometimes in an even more miserable situation as these interventions have simply not worked for them. Also a family member a few years ago had terrible problems with new knees, had them re-replaced and was still in constant pain.

So me I'll stick to the excersizes and hopefully lose a bit of weight and just get on with it.

When I was in France recently a lady I have known for donkeys years was on the shuttle bus to the airport. She was going on a walking holiday. I had my walking stick with me. She said that she had had ceramic knee joints put in, and could walk now. The above mentioned Dr said that not enough research  currently in place for him to believe that this was a new 'cure'. A lot of orthopedic stuff remains experimental for a long time as these surgeons can give stuff a go without that much follow up, unlike new drugs, for example. A powerful group apparently, orthopedic surgeons.

[Chrissie]

OH considered Synvisc about 10 years ago, but was told that this might prejudice any later need to have a knee replacement (something along the lines of the joint being too gunged up to be able to accept the new ball joint, but this is my totally untechnical memory of what was said.)  Presumably would be wise to check if Synvisc in your case is seen as a long-term solution or merely a temporary one.

Chrissie (81)