Hyaluronic Acid Injections HA Injections In The Knee
HA injections in the knee
Hyaluronan injections
The principles behind Hyaluronan Injections are to decrease pain and improve function in patients with joint pain.
Hyaluronan injections have been shown to have the following beneficial effects on joints:
1. They replace some of the normal ingredients found in synovial fluid (hyaluronans) improving the lubricating ability.
2. They help to stimulate the joint lining (the synovium) manufacture more normal synovial fluid.
3. The Hyaluronan coats the lining of the damaged joint surfaces, covering pain nerve endings. This reduces pain and protects the joint surfaces from joint inflammation.
4. Hyaluronans also act directly to reduce inflammation in a joint, like a steroid, but without the harmful side-effects of steroids.
Hyaluronic Acid injections into the knee joint are a very effective tool to treat:
* Patients with localized damage to the lining surface of the joint (localized chondral defect).
* Patients with early stage arthritis who wish to decrease their pain and increase their function.
* Patients with more advanced arthritis who would like to postpone the need for a total joint replacement.
* "Athletes" involved in impact sports (running, jumping , twisting) that overload the articular cartilage of the knee. There is some evidence (Roos et al) that this can lead to increased breakdown of the lining articular cartilage. This could be one of the mechanisms pre-disposing to the accelerated development of osteoarthritis in the "athletes" at a younger age. Ostenil can & is used as one of the treatment modalities in "athletes" with early arthritis of the knee. Whether hyaluronan therapy has any effect to reduce damage to the articular cartilage that is repeatedly overloaded (as in running jumping sports) is as yet unknown, but may be possible.
Click here for a HA knee injection leaflet as a downloadable file. [pdf opens in a new window]
