Don’t Let Joint Pain Derail You This Fall: When to Consider an Image-Guided Injection

Joint pain can limit your mobility, interfere with your ability to perform basic tasks, disrupt your sleep, undermine your energy, and make you miserable — especially if it sticks around despite your best efforts. Common causes of persistent joint pain include:

• Osteoarthritis (OA), or wear-and-tear arthritis  
• Rheumatoid arthritis (RA), an autoimmune disorder
• Gout, or joint pain caused by uric acid buildup 
• Repetitive use injuries like bursitis or tendonitis 

If you’re tired of being derailed by joint pain — and you’re ready to get back to your active life ASAP — board-certified pain management specialist Dr. Okezie N. Okezie can help. 

Let’s discuss when it may be time to seek next-level care for joint pain at Interventional Sports and Pain Management Associates, and explain how joint injections can deliver lasting relief.

Front-line care for joint pain

Most of the time, stiff, achy joints improve with an initial period of rest and activity modification, followed by joint-friendly lifestyle strategies like exercise and weight loss. 

Along the way, cold therapy (icing) can ease momentary joint inflammation flares, heat therapy can promote blood flow to a stiff joint that isn’t swollen, and taking acetaminophen or ibuprofen on occasion can keep pain and discomfort down.   

Joint pain that persists because of a chronic, progressive condition like arthritis — or a slow-healing overuse injury like tendonitis — may also benefit from strategies like:

• Physical therapy (PT)
• Occupational therapy
• Joint support (bracing) 
• Supportive footwear  
• Postural rehabilitation
• Ergonomic practices

The average “conservative care timeline” for joint pain is six to 12 weeks — but the actual timeframe can vary from a week or two of home care to several months of PT and supportive aid use, depending on the nature of your joint condition and its severity.

How joint injections can help

Joint injections are a targeted pain relief procedure that uses image guidance to deliver nerve-calming anti-inflammatory corticosteroids or anesthetic medications right to the source of your pain for fast, effective relief. Joint injections, including nerve blocks, help:

• Reduce inflammation
• Ease swelling and pain
• Improve joint function 
• Restore range of motion 
• Increase joint mobility

Because joint injections deliver lasting relief for weeks or months at a time, they provide a cascade of associated benefits, like reduced reliance on oral pain medications, and fuller participation in PT exercise and activities that support long-term pain management gains. 

When to consider joint injections

So, how do you know when it’s time to consider joint injections? The short answer: When conservative treatments like rest, PT, and over-the-counter pain relievers haven’t provided — or are no longer providing — adequate relief. 

This may be after an initial prescribed period of conservative care, if you notice there’s no significant improvement at that point; it may also be during your prescribed treatment time, if your joint pain is worsening or simply too limiting. 

After discussing your pain management efforts and evaluating your joint, Dr. Okezie may recommend incorporating image-guided injections in your treatment plan if: 

Your joint pain is persistent 

Your joint pain continues despite trying, for a prescribed period of time, conservative care strategies and treatments that are known to be effective for your specific joint condition.    

Your pain is severe or worsening 

Your joint pain has worsened, despite conservative care, or it’s so significant that it limits your daily activities, restricts your mobility, or routinely wakes you from your sleep.

Your condition is inflammatory

If you have a chronic joint condition that causes recurrent inflammation flares along with associated pain and stiffness (i.e., osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, gout), periodic joint injections can help you manage the condition more effectively.  

You need a lasting “pain break”

If your joint pain makes it hard to exercise or participate in PT, image-guided injections can give you the “break” from your pain that you need to make headway in your treatment and reap important long-term gains for healthier, more functional joints.  

You’d like to delay surgery

If you want to delay orthopedic surgery for an arthritic knee, hip, shoulder, or ankle, a targeted medicated injection can provide increased joint comfort and function for a longer interim.    

Your pain is compounded by injury

If you’ve experienced an acute injury (i.e., in a fall or car accident) on top of a preexisting joint pain problem — especially if that injury causes bruising and increased inflammation within the joint — an injection can calm the irritated nerves and help you heal faster.   

Joint injections in the Houston area 

Whether you’re managing an inflammatory condition like arthritis, nursing a long-standing repetitive strain injury like tendonitis, or looking to bridge the gap between persistent joint pain and a planned orthopedic procedure, image-guided injections can be very helpful. 

To learn more or find out if you’re a candidate, contact your nearest Interventional Sports and Pain Management Associates office in Humble or Baytown, Texas, today.