Hyaluronic acid injections can help patients with knee osteoarthritis find some relief without resorting to surgery. These acid injections are most effective for patients over the age of 60 who suffer from severe and debilitating knee pain. Doctors aren’t sure why hyaluronic injectable drugs have a positive effect on osteoarthritis, but it seems to provide months of relief for some patients.
What is Knee Osteoarthritis?
Knee Osteoarthritis - X-Ray of the Left Knee
Knee osteoarthritis is a medical condition in which the cartilage in the patient’s knees deteriorates. As the cartilage deteriorates, the patient experiences pain. Eventually, most people who suffer from this disease require surgery to correct it, as the cartilage does not heal or repair itself.
There are few treatments for this disease outside of surgery because of the permanent nature of the damage to the patient’s knees. Some patients use a pain management regimen to help them function until such time as they can get surgery. However, there is some evidence that getting hyaluronic acid supplements via knee injection can relieve pain for several months at a time. Hyaluronic acid injections seem to be more effective than nonsteroidal anti inflammatory drugs at controlling knee pain.
How Do Hyaluronic Acid Injections Work?
Scientists believe that hyaluronic acid supplements the natural supply of acid that is found in the cartilage around the knee. Thus, since the cartilage is eroding, the acid injections may help rebuild it. The more cartilage a patient has around his knee, the less pain he feels while walking; osteoarthritis causes pain because the bones in the knee are rubbing directly against one another instead of being buffered by cartilage. Hyaluronic acid therefore has an anti-inflammatory effect because it helps build up cartilage in the knee.
Is This Type of Treatment New?
Hydraulic acid injections have been available since the late 1980s; the treatment is neither new nor experimental. The FDA has approved acid supplements to cartilage for use in the knees, although these injections are not supposed to be used for other purposes. Some doctors use the injections in other joints, but you should be aware that these treatments are experimental.
There have been several studies on the use of acid supplements to treat osteoarthritis. Most studies show that these injections prevent pain for several months but don’t have a long-term effect on joint pain. These medications also appear to be more effective in patients over the age of 60.
Treatment Description and Side Effects
Hyaluronic acid injections require the patient to get a shot in the knee once a week for three to five weeks at a time. The acid is injected directly into the cavity surrounding the knee joint. Patients don’t have to stay in the hospital after treatment; they can receive it on an outpatient basis.
The only known side effects of hyaluronic acid involve pain, swelling and redness around the knee joints after injection. Hyaluronic acid is considered a very safe medication. It is often used to treat osteoarthritis because it is a non-steroid medication. Steroid medications tend to cause joints to deteriorate over time so they are not as safe or effective.
Although there is no evidence that these acid supplements can affect unborn children or breast milk, the FDA advises pregnant women not to take the injections. There is simply not enough evidence that the injections are safe to warrant the risk.
Advantages to Hyaluronic Treatments
There are several advantages to taking hyaluronic acid injections. Some of the reasons to consider this treatment include:
- Very few side effects. As mentioned, hyaluronic acid doesn’t appear to negatively affect most patients. There may be some minor soreness or redness around the injection site, but you should not be debilitated by any side effect of this treatment.
- Less interaction with other medications. Steroid treatments or pain pills may work effectively, but sometimes these treatments have undesirable side effects. For example, if you take blood thinners, you won’t be able to take most standard pain medications because of the risk of gastrointestinal bleeding. Acid treatments don’t have these kinds of interactions.
- May reduce the need for surgery. These knee injections often work for up to six months or a year, so you won’t have to have surgery right away for knee pain. In some cases, injections work well enough that you won’t have to have surgery at all if you take advantage of these treatments.
- More effective. These treatments tend to be more effective than pain pills or other medications; you’re less likely to continue to suffer from debilitating pain while taking this course of treatment.
The major disadvantage of hyaluronic acid injections is that this treatment can be expensive, and not all insurance companies cover it. Check with your insurance company to see if it covers this type of treatment when trying to decide whether to try it.
Considerations of Hyaluronic Acid Injections
Hyaluronic acid is usually considered a last-resort treatment before having knee replacement surgery. Typically, your doctor will not try this treatment unless you have already tried non-medical remedies such as losing weight and moderate exercise and pain pills or steroid shots have not helped you.
Generally speaking, hyaluronic acid treatment is a viable alternative to surgery. However, you should realize that in rare cases, these injections fail to relieve your pain. You should only opt for surgery if you have severe pain t hat does not respond to acid supplements or other treatments.
During surgery, doctors remove your damaged knee. They replace it with an artificial knee, which is usually made out of plastic or metal. Since the artificial joint often doesn’t fit perfectly, surgeons have to fill the knee cavity with dermal fillers so that the new joint won’t move around or become dislodged. Patients have to participate in physical therapy to get the most benefit from the surgery.
Although surgery isn’t dangerous, it is extensive and requires a hospital stay. If you’re considering surgery, you should try hyaluronic acid injections first to see if you can relieve your pain without undergoing a procedure that requires a long recovery.