Injection therapy
What is it?
Injection therapy is used to treat musculoskeletal problems for short to medium term pain relief and to reduce inflammation and improve function. The injections can be guided using ultrasound, X-ray, and CT scans.
Some injections are a combination of local anaesthetic to temporarily numb the area and a corticosteroid which acts as a long acting anti-inflammatory. While the anaesthetic gives a few hours of pain relief, the corticosteroid can take up to a week to take effect and often lasts for up to six months.
Other injections include viscosupplementation (lubricating type injection) for osteoarthritis and platelet rich plasma (PRP) for tendon tears and osteoarthritis of the knee.
Injections can be guided directly into joints or into soft tissue structures such as bursitis or tendon sheaths depending on the problem.