Peripheral Joint Injection

Peripheral Joint Injection is an injection of a local anesthetic into a joint is also a useful diagnostic technique and may be performed with or without the simultaneous administration of steroid. Such injections are particularly common in the hip and can help distinguish pain originating from the joint itself from referred back pain.

Steroid injections have been shown to have therapeutic benefit in the following conditions:

• rheumatoid arthritis
• seronegative spondyloarthropathies
• osteoarthritis with associated effusion
• crystalline arthritis
• traumatic synovitis

Patients who have long-standing arthritic pain are typically referred for intraarticular steroid injections only when other modalities (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, analgesics, various modes of physical therapy, etc) have failed to adequately control symptoms.