Joint Pain

According to a recent report of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nearly 15 million adults in the U.S. were diagnosed with chronic joint pain due to arthritis in 2015 alone. Statistics likewise indicate that almost half of American adults will be diagnosed with arthritis by the age of 85. In Vermont, 27% of adults have been diagnosed with arthritis, with diagnosis more common among women than men.

Joint pain may emerge due to a number of underlying conditions like osteoarthritis (wear and tear), rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis, or Lyme disease. Regardless of cause, joint pain can be severe or debilitating, rendering significant impacts to quality of life.

At Interventional Spine of Vermont, we use evidence-based pain management techniques to treat or manage joint pain, including joint injection, radiofrequency ablation, and platelet-rich plasma (PRP).

Our goal is to get our patients back to golfing, gardening, walking, and enjoying their lives without joint pain standing in the way.

*A number of causes lead joints to degenerate over time, resulting in pain, stiffness, and lack of mobility.*

Platelet-Rich Plasma Injection Therapy

Platelet-Rich Plasma (PRP) therapy represents a breakthrough in pain-management medicine. Whereas injections for joint pain typically rely on steroid or hyaluronic acid to lubricate or reduce inflammation in a painful joint, PRP allows providers to treat joint pain with the body’s own naturally-produced anti-inflammatory compounds.

Prior to the procedure, a small amount of blood is drawn from your arm. This blood is then spun down in a centrifuge machine to separate the red blood cells from the remaining plasma and “buffy coat” of platelets and white blood cells. This mixture — a concentrated suspension of plasma rich in platelets and white blood cells — serves as the medication to be injected.

The platelet-rich plasma is then injected into the joint of interest, as well as into the surrounding musculature and connective tissue like tendons, to essentially supercharge the body’s natural anti-inflammatory response.

Make an appointment with one of our providers to see if PRP therapy may be right for you.

Joint Injection for Shoulder, Hip and Knee Pain

Joint injections are minimally invasive procedures in which steroid, local anesthetic, or hyaluronic acid is injected into a joint with the help of x-ray guidance. .

Often, hip or knee pain occurs in a vicious cycle whereby patients experience so much pain that they can must limit activity, thereby further exacerbating pain and inflammation, leading to further inactivity, wait loss, and depression. Incorporating regular physical activity into one’s daily regimen is thus important not only for cardiovascular health, but for overall bodily comfort and mental wellbeing.

Steroid injections reduce joint pain by minimizing joint inflammation, decreasing the frequency and intensity of pain-producing nerve signals. Similarly, injections of hyaluronic acid — a substance found in joint-cushioning synovial fluid — can be injected into joints in which this cushion has worn thin over time, leading to lasting relief of pain and stiffness.

Call us today to discuss your joint pain with one of our board-certified pain specialists.

Knee, ankle and foot | Sacroiliac Joint | Hip Joint | Digital X-Rays

*After centrifugation, platelet rich plasma can be extracted from the blood for injection into a joint*

Radiofrequency Ablation for Shoulders and Knee

This procedure works by heating the nerves that transmit pain. Usually, the process begins with diagnostic injection or set of injections to gauge whether an ablation would be effective. During these nerve blocks, the provider will inject local anesthesia to the target nerves to numb them. If the numbing action causes a substantial, if temporary, reduction in neck or back pain, the physician can be diagnostically assured that the ablation of those same nerves may yield the desired results.

The ablation is then performed by connecting a small needle to a machine that delivers a current to create a lesion in the targeted nerves. With this lesion, the targeted nerves are far less able to transmit pain signals. Although results vary on a patient-to-patient basis, ablation procedure can yield pain relief for 9 to 12 months.

Neuropathic Pain | Prior Spine Surgeries | Spinal Arthritis | Injuries