Hip Joint Injections

Hip pain is often highly disabling and difficult to relieve. At offices across Kentucky, Indiana, and Illinois, Commonwealth Pain and Spine’s board-certified doctors offer hip joint injections to diagnose and treat conditions like arthritis, bursitis, and other long-term inflammatory disorders. Call your nearest office today or schedule a consultation online to benefit from image-guided hip joint injections.

What are hip joint injections?

Joint injections help find the source of hip pain and relieve it. The hip is a large joint where your leg joins your pelvis. Damage and disease in the hip can cause pain in the buttock, leg, lower back, and the joint itself.

The Commonwealth Pain and Spine team uses hip joint injections for:

Diagnosis

Injecting numbing medicine into the hip helps confirm or exclude the joint as the pain’s source. If you experience complete pain relief after a hip joint injection, there’s a problem with the joint. But you might need further tests to identify what’s causing your symptoms.

Pain relief

In addition to immediate pain relief from numbing medication, hip joint injections can contain time-release cortisone, a steroid drug. Cortisone reduces inflammation, often providing long-term pain relief.

What happens during a hip joint injection?

Before your hip joint injection, you lie face down on an X-ray table, and the team thoroughly cleans your skin over the hip.

Your doctor numbs the skin with a local anesthetic; this could sting slightly. They use X-ray guidance (fluoroscopy)  to ensure accuracy as they insert a small needle into the hip joint. Your doctor injects several drops of contrast dye to check that the medicine goes only into the joint.

After these preparations, your doctor slowly injects a small quantity of anesthetic and cortisone into the joint. The injection lasts only a few minutes, but the entire procedure takes 30-60 minutes.

What happens after my hip joint injection?

After your hip joint injection, you rest on the table for 20-30 minutes. The team then asks you to move your hip to see if it causes the usual pain.

Sometimes, patients feel numb or have a weak, odd feeling in their legs for a few hours after a hip joint injection. You could experience slightly increased pain for several days because the anesthetic wears off after several hours; the cortisone takes effect more slowly

Results depend on whether the hip is the primary source of pain. Some patients experience pain relief in the first few hours after their hip injection. If there’s no improvement within 10 days of the injection, you may need further tests to accurately diagnose the problem.

Call Commonwealth Pain and Spine today or book an appointment online for more information on hip joint injections and their benefits.

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Sacroiliac Joint Steroid Injection

This injection procedure is performed to relieve pain caused by arthritis in the sacroiliac joint where the spine and hip bone meet. The steroid medication can reduce swelling and inflammation in the joint.