Knee injuries can be painful and debilitating. It limits your movement and stops you from the activities you enjoy. No more jogging walks in the park, or even good, long stretches.
Knee pain is a common issue that has many causes, from aging to injuries to complicated medical conditions. Hyaluronic acid (Hyalgan or Gel Shots) injections are a groundbreaking non-surgical treatment for knee pain.
Hyalgan knee injections are intra-articular injections of hyaluronic acid to ease pain, lessen the stress on the knee, and improve its range of motion. Hyaluronic acid lubricates the knee joint, promoting healing and improved performance. It’s an effective treatment option for patients looking for an alternative to surgery or physical therapy.
At PainTherapy Medical Care in Brooklyn, New York, Dr. Henry Sardar expertly performs Hyalgan Knee Injections with ultrasound guidance for optimal healing and recovery.
If you’re interested in hyaluronic acid gel injection for knee osteoarthritis pain, keep reading to learn more.
What Is Hyaluronic Acid?
Hyaluronic acid (HA), also known as hyaluronate or hyaluronan, is a naturally occurring component of your synovial fluid. The synovial fluid is a thick fluid lining that prevents friction in the knee joints. Hyaluronic acid is responsible for lubricating your joints and preventing friction in the joint.
As you age, your body produces less synovial fluid, making you vulnerable to conditions like osteoarthritis – a degenerative disease of the knee. Over-exercising and strenuous physical activities can also cause the breakdown of hyaluronic acid in your joint fluid. When this breakdown occurs faster than the secretion of HA, it can also lead to arthritis (joint inflammation).
Hyaluronic acid is used therapeutically as a form of viscosupplementation. That’s the injection of hyaluronic acid into your joints. It has become a great surgical alternative for reducing pain, improving knee mobility, and preventing the progression of arthritis.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved viscosupplementation as a viable treatment of knee osteoarthritis.
What Are Hyalgan Knee Injections?
At PainTherapy Medical Care, we use a premium brand of hyaluronic acid called “Hyalgan” to treat various knee joint conditions. Hyalgan is a solution of sodium hyaluronate that contains natural hyaluronic acid to induce relief from knee pain for as long as six months.
HA injections for knee pain are intra-articular injections. That means we deliver them directly into your joints, making absorption faster and improving the pain of knee conditions like osteoarthritis. They are reliable treatment options when you want to avoid surgery or don’t see any improvement from conservative treatments.
Dr. Henry Sardar D.O., pain management doctor in Brooklyn NYC, administers the injections with the help of ultrasound imaging. The real-time imaging guides him as he targets the painful joint and delivers the hyaluronic acid injection.
Once he releases the Hyalgan into the painful area, it will provide the needed lubrication for easy movement and reduce the pain from joint diseases.
How Does Hyaluronic Acid Produce Therapeutic Effects?
Hyaluronic acid injections can be a long-term therapy that enhances your joint function and healing. With the aid of ultrasound guidance, HA injections in your knee can provide direct and fast pain relief by mechanically improving your joint.
When Dr. Sardar injects hyaluronic acid into your knee, it can act as a lubricant, shock absorber, and joint stabilizer. Through this, and more, it’s become one of the best treatments for chronic knee pain:
- Provides Lubrication: Hyaluronic acid is a naturally occurring lubricant in your joints. It can gradually decrease because of aging or chronic conditions. Hyalgan injections replenish your supply and provide the needed lubrication to prevent friction in the knee joint.
- Reduces Friction: Viscosity is the property of hyaluronic acid that makes smooth joint movement possible. Age, sports injuries, heavy lifting, and overuse can weaken the viscosity of your synovial fluid, leading to friction and pain. Injecting hyaluronic acid restores normal viscosity to reduce friction and improve the mobility of your knee.
- Stimulates Cell Regeneration: HA can trigger your cells to migrate and multiply, leading to faster healing. It’s been observed in cells involved with tissue regeneration, such as the chondrocytes in your cartilage. The injected HA stimulates natural healing by promoting the synthesis and regeneration of your cartilage.
- Anti-Inflammatory Effects: Without the essential fluid lining, your knee bones constantly rub against each other, leading to inflammation. When we reintroduce hyaluronic acid into your affected knee, it prevents the production of inflammatory substances and consequently reduces the pain.
What Knee Conditions Do Hyalgan Knee Injections Treat?
Hyalgan injection therapy is a treatment with sodium hyaluronate. It aims to reintroduce hyaluronic acid into the affected knee to reduce pain, restore joint function, and improve joint damage.
Dr. Sardar administers Hyalgan Knee Injections to treat various chronic knee conditions, including, but not limited to:
- Tricomparminal arthritis
- Tibial or femoral condial arthritis
- Knee osteoarthritis
Am I A Candidate For Hyalgan Knee Injections?
At our New York pain clinic, we use hyaluronic acid injections to induce therapeutic effects that relieve the pain from your knee. It’s one of the best minimally invasive and safe treatments for managing the pain from knee injuries and knee joint diseases.
You may be a suitable candidate for Hyalgan Knee Injections if:
- You’ve been experiencing arthritis knee pain for several weeks
- Physical therapy is not achieving the desired pain-relief
- Steroid injections did not help ease the pain
- You don’t want to rely on pain relievers
- You are experiencing excruciating knee pain due to injury
- You would like to avoid knee replacement surgery
- You want a natural improvement in knee pain
- You want to avoid knee steroid injections
Hyalgan knee injections have quickly become the go-to treatment for knee pain since they were approved by the FDA. However, some factors may disqualify you from hyalgan treatment:
- You have a history of an allergic reaction to hyaluronic acid
- You have an infection or skin disease in the affected area
Clinical studies also have yet to prove the safety and efficacy of hyaluronic acid joint injections in pregnant or breastfeeding women.
If you aren’t a suitable candidate for HA injections, that doesn’t mean you are out of options. Dr. Sardar performs a wide range of pain management therapies that can benefit various conditions.
Contact us at PainTherapy Medical Care to get a personalized treatment plan designed just for you.
What Are The Benefits Of Hyalgan Knee Injections?
Research by the CDC reveals that 32.5 million Americans suffer from painful osteoarthritis. It is one of the most common causes of chronic knee pain. Hyaluronic acid injections have widely become the choice of therapy in the treatment of patients with osteoarthritis.
These are a few of the benefits that make Hyalgan injections the preferred method over traditional treatments of chronic knee pain:
- Accelerated Pain Relief: Although Hyalgan isn’t a cure for pain in your knee, it offers fast pain relief within the first few weeks of receiving the injection.
- Minimally Invasive: HA injections are a safe non-surgical alternative when you want to avoid knee replacement surgery. We provide local anesthesia to numb the injection site, and it doesn’t involve incisions or scarring.
- Precision Injections: Ultrasound-guided Hyalgan injections prevent the blind aiming technique by providing real-time imaging. Dr. Sardar can precisely administer the shot with less risk of hitting nearby structures.
- Cuts Down Prescription Medication: Pain relief medication is a quick fix that only provides short-term relief. Hyalgan injections follow weekly doses that give you long-lasting pain relief. 4 to 5 injections can even last you up to 6 months of pain-free activity.
- FDA Approved: Numerous clinical trials have produced excellent results that show Hyalgan injections as a safe and effective pain treatment.
- No Recovery Period: You are free to go about your day after your hyalgan injections.
How Are Hyalgan Injections Administered?
Dr. Henry Sardar administers hyaluronic acid knee injections for chronic pain with ultrasound guidance. He first disinfects the injection site with an antiseptic and applies a numbing agent to prevent pain or discomfort during the procedure.
Before the injection, Dr. Sardar checks for any excess fluid in your joint that may be causing inflammation. If there’s excess joint fluid, he’ll extract it using a syringe guided by the ultrasound machine. He then uses the ultrasound to determine the path of injection and the surrounding tissues.
Once Dr. Sardar traces the correct position, he can deliver the Hyalgan shot to the painful arthritic joint. After the injection has been fully released, he removes the needle.
Patients usually require a course of around 4 to 5 sessions to get the full benefit of hyalgan.
The great thing about HA injections is that there’s no downtime. Still, it’s best to avoid strenuous activities for the first couple of days.
Can Hyalgan Knee Injections Be Combined With Other Therapies?
For maximum improvement in your knee pain, we recommend a combination therapy. At our pain clinic in Brooklyn, we offer a range of options to treat various painful conditions.
Dr. Sardar often combines Hyalgan Knee Injection for knee pain with the following therapies:
- Cold laser therapy
- Shock-wave therapy
- Cryotherapy
- Electromagnetic Transduction Therapy (EMTT)
- Pulsed electromagnetic field (PEMF) therapy
- TECAR Therapy
- Kinesio Taping
- Ultrasound-Guided Injections
- Acupuncture Therapy
- Fluoroscopically Guided Epidural Steroid Injection and Facet Injection
- Physical and Occupational Therapy
Are Hyaluronic Acid Injections Effective?
Several clinical studies have so far confirmed that intra-articular sodium hyaluronate injections elicit improvement in knee pain. It’s been proven to reduce pain and improve joint function significantly.
Although there is currently no cure for osteoarthritis, hyaluronic acid is one of the most effective pain therapies for degenerative joint disease. HA injection for knee pain also prevents the disease from progressing, evidently delaying the deterioration that sometimes leads to knee replacement surgery.
Hyalgan as an injection treatment offers long-term efficacy with only a few sessions. The effectiveness of the procedure can differ from patient to patient. Depending on the cause of your pain, the extent of your condition, and your response to the treatment, the effects of the injections may take a longer or shorter time to feel.
Combining HA injection with other pain management therapies is the best way to maximize the benefits of treatment and provide optimal healing.
Are Hyaluronic Acid Injections Covered by Insurance?
Many insurance providers usually cover the cost of hyalgan injections in many patients. This, of course, depends on your specific condition. In general, if your orthopedist, rheumatologist, primary care physician, or physical therapist recommend hyaluronic acid injections, you should be eligible for coverage.
At PainTherapy Medical Care, we accept most major insurance providers: New York State Medicaid, HealthFirst, Fidelis Care, Affinity Group, Metro Plus, Amerigroup, BlueCross/BlueShield Medicaid Plan, and United Health Care Community Plan coverage are all welcome.
Hyaluronic acid knee injection is a reliable treatment widely trusted among Dr. Henry Sardar’s patients in New York. It can reduce knee pain and improve your range of motion. It’s based on natural components and is now considered an excellent alternative to knee prosthesis surgery.
Visit us at PainTherapy Medical Care in Brooklyn, New York, to check out our state-of-the-art amenities and receive expert medical advice and care for your chronic pain.
Hyaluronic Acid Knee Injections for Pain – FAQs
- Are hyaluronic joint injections painful? Before the HA injection, Dr. Sardar may apply a local anesthetic or a numbing spray on the painful area. It prevents you from feeling any pain or discomfort while he administers the injection.
- Are knee pain injections safe? Knee injections are safe and minimally invasive. The FDA has approved hyalgan knee injections after many clinical trials. Hyalgan Knee Injections are only performed in an accredited clinic and by licensed professionals.
- Do hyaluronic acid joint injections have any side effects? Like any injection procedure, side effects can include redness and warmth around the affected area, mild injection site pain, mild itchiness, or a temporary inflammation. These are all normal and will subside shortly after.
- How often can you have hyaluronic acid joint injections? Your treatment cycle depends entirely on you. You may choose to get weekly injections, or 4 to 5 injections, in a span of 6 months. We suggest you avoid missing sessions to experience the full benefits of hyalgan injections and faster recovery from knee pain.
- What should I do after a knee pain injection? HA knee injections have no recovery period. However, we suggest rest and avoiding strenuous activities that can add pressure on the affected joint.
Hyaluronic Acid Knee Injections for Pain – References:
Hyaluronan and synovial joint: function, distribution, and healing
Hyaluronan Acid Therapies for Osteoarthritis of the Knee
Effectiveness and utility of hyaluronic acid in osteoarthritis
Hyaluronic Acid: Molecular Mechanisms and Therapeutic Trajectory
Hyaluronic Acid (HA) Viscosupplementation on Synovial Fluid Inflammation in Knee Osteoarthritis: A Pilot Study
Intra-articular Hyaluronic Acid Injections for Knee Osteoarthritis
Viscosupplementation: techniques, indications, results