Most patients tolerate ultrasound guided steroid injections very well.
Guided injections are generally less painful than non-guided injections. Using ultrasound to guide a needle directly to the point of pain means that thinner and shorter needles can often be used. Using thinner needles causes less soft tissue trauma in the surrounding area.
All injections carried out at JK Physio by Luke Millward from Complete Physio are accompanied with the use of local anaesthetic. Local anaesthetic gives between 1 and 2 hours of local numbness. This is long enough to give pain relief during and after the injection and will get you home comfortably.
Occasionally patients may get some discomfort the day after the injection when the local anaesthetic has worn off and before the steroid begins to take affect (normally from about 3 days following the injection). Usually this will be an achy pain and is generally well managed by use of an ice pack or hot water bottle or over the counter painkillers such as Paracetamol. This pain usually settles within 24-48hours. We recommend that patients remain gently active as this often helps settle the discomfort.
Of note, if the area injected becomes very hot and swollen, we recommend an urgent medical review to rule out infection. This is a very rare complication and is thought to occur approximately one in every 50,000 joint injections.
Luke Millward is a highly experienced clinician and carries out over 500 injections a year. He prides himself on providing a comfortable and professional experience during and after every injection.
