Chronic Knee-Pain Relief

Travis Stork: Why is this hurt, that is the question we're answering for you today. Jamie has been in constant pain for quite sometime and it's beginning to disrupt her daily life. Jamie: Hey doctors! I use to be really active but lately my knee has been bothering me a lot and it's really keeping from doing the sports that I really like to do. It's mostly an achy pain but if I do certain movement like twist it then it's a really sharp pain that's really unbearable. The pain in my knee has gotten so bad that I really struggle when I walk up in downstairs, is there anything that I can do about it? Travis Stork: Jamie recently went to see Dr. Stetson from the Stetson Powell Orthopedics and Sports Medicine Clinic. She wanted to find out more about her knee pain. Welcome back first of all. Dr. Stetson: Thank you Travis. Travis Stork: Welcome Jamie, so first thing I want to let everyone at home know you did X-rays and then MRI to rule out ligamentous meniscus injuries right? Dr. Stetson: That's exactly what we did Travis, we did some standing x-rays because that's how Jamie lives her life and the x-rays looks fine, there's is no abnormal alignment know if this can lead to osteoarthritis, she had a long course of physical therapy which also didn't relieve the pain. So the next step is to try these series of injections to get her some pain relief and get her back to her regular activities. Travis Stork: Cool skiing photo there, can we get her back on the water. So what we're going to do is an injection of a material that may help improve her symptoms because what you've found is that she's got may be some early Osteoarthritis or glycosaminoglycan. Dr. Stetson: That's right early Osteoarthritis is called glycosaminoglycan in particular it's around the knee cap area, we saw that on the MRI. So the purpose of these injections, it's called Hyaluronic acid, it's almost like lubricant and it nourishes the cartilage and that will help to relieve the pain and get her back to those activities that she loves to do. Travis Stork: Okay. So first things first, you are going to inject a needle into her knee joint and you are going to see if there's fluid we need to pull off, right? Dr. Stetson: Absolutely, we do that first, we will of course numb it up, with numbing agents that get with the dentist and then we'll take, try to take a little fluid off. If there's no fluid then we just change the syringe and we eject this ampule of this little gel. Travis Stork: You're ready Jamie? Jamie: Sure, why not. Dr. Stetson: My assistance Suzie is going to help me. We've already marked the area where we going put the Novocaine. Travis Stork: And this is a relatively new treatment for a very frustrating condition because typically we think of Osteoarthritis as wear and tear and it's downhill course we haven't had many treatment options, this is really a new, a new technology. Dr. Stetson: It really is Travis because young ladies like this will often times what they'll do is just give up their activities and Jamie has been active in the past, she is a such young, lovely lady, she wants to go back to those activities often times unfortunately they say it hurts, I don't want to do them anymore. But there's treatment and this is one of the treatments that we started with. Travis Stork: And while you're doing the procedure, I'll probably ask you few questions. So you go ahead and do your job and Jamie first things first, you're going to get some numbing medicine. Dr. Stetson: That's exactly, we always mark the area where going to put the Novocaine or Lidocaine just like you get it at the dentist and it's a very-very small needle, so there's nothing to worry about and again we're highly trained medical professionals, just going to do at right here, don't try this at home, a little bit of a stake Jamie, just like that and what we do, we want to numb it up real good for her and basically it doesn't hurt going into skin but get into the knee capsule hurts more. Few people ask, well knee pains hurt on the inside, why are you injecting it up above the knee cap? Well, if you can imagine the knee cap is like a capsule or balloon and what we do is, we injected it into the spot that's the easiest place to get into. So, I can tell, I'm already into knee joint, I want to numb it up real good for you. We're almost done with that part, you will see a little bit of a bubble there, there we go. Now what we're going to do, little bit of a bigger needle, we're going to go in and we're going to see, if we get a fluid off, 1, 2, 3 little bit of a stake. Okay not so bad, little bit. Travis Stork: You're Okay Jamie? Jamie: Yeah. Dr. Stetson: So I see, I get no fluid out which is good. So when the knee is angry it produces fluid which is called water on the knee or an effusion. So Jamie hasn't had that, so that's great. We'll take this ampule of this gel like substance and then what we do, is we just inject it into the knee like that and we're all done. Travis Stork: Basically like some WD-40 for the knee. Dr. Stetson: That's a good way to look at it, it's a lubricant in the Articular Cartilage, as just we get older starts to wear down, so this is actually the lubricant for that Articular Cartilage. Travis Stork: So, Jamie will get one of these a week for how long? Dr. Stetson: We typically do it once in a week for a three weeks and then after that, we gradually get her back to her activities may be restart a physical therapy program and get her back to doing all those activities that she loves to do. Travis Stork: Well we wish, the best of luck. We want to see you back on ski soon. Jamie: Thank you. Travis Stork: Thank you so much Doctor. Dr. Stetson: No problem. Happy to do this job.