Steroid injection therapy is the injection of corticosteroid medications into painful joints or soft tissues to reduce pain and inflammation in the area.
This may be recommended if you are unable to tolerate oral anti-inflammatories, if your condition is too painful for you to manage with physiotherapy exercises, or if your progress has slowed down. Occasionally injections may be used to confirm a diagnosis if it is not clear where your symptoms originate from.
How could you benefit from injection therapy?
The injection can help to relieve swelling, pain and stiffness caused by inflammation. This can help you rehabilitate effectively and help you to return to normal activities sooner by ‘breaking the cycle’ of pain and inflammation. This is usually recommended to those suffering from overuse syndromes, when other types of physiotherapy don’t work.
It can also aid the diagnosis of your condition if it is not clear what is causing your pain. You may have a local anaesthetic injected at the same time to allow for temporary pain relief and to help locate where your pain is originating from.
Common conditions that could benefit from injection therapy:
• Arthritis
• Bursitis
• Carpal Tunnel Syndrome
• Capsulitis
• Epicondylitis (Tennis Elbow/Golfers Elbow)
• Shoulder impingement
• Tendonitis
• Trigger points