Joint Injection

Types of injections for joint pain

Your doctor will recommend a type of injection based on your needs. The available injectables range from the well-known corticosteroids to PRP cells collected from your own body.

Cortisone Injection

You’ll likely receive a cortisone a steroid injection, as a first-line treatment. Cortisone injections are effective for many patients in quickly reducing inflammation and pain directly inside the joint, but they come with a few precautions.

If you have a minor injury, relief may last indefinitely. But for chronic (long-term) pain, you’ll only feel the steroid’s effects for about 3 months.

PRP injections and cell therapy

The most common and best-studied orthobiologic is called platelet-rich plasma (PRP). The process of PRP injections involves taking your blood, isolating and concentrating the platelets, and injecting billions of platelets into your joint, ligament, or tendon.

Some newer injectables, called cell therapies, use cells and tissues collected from your own body like bone marrow or fat tissue. The cells are collected, cleansed, and carefully injected into your joint, ligament, or tendon.

“Cell therapies have reduced chronic inflammation in many of patients and research suggests that cell therapies may have the potential to stimulate a healing response in the tissue over time.

Benefits of PRP joint injections

Pain injections for the joints offer a minimally invasive option for pain relief without the need for surgery. Some injections, like placental injections and platelet-rich plasma injections, provide additional benefits because they are free of steroids and contain naturally occurring substances (such as blood platelets and stem cells) to help reduce inflammation.