Steroid Injections
High-dose steroid injections are a common treatment option for people living with chronic pain due to an orthopedic injury that has not yet advanced enough to require surgery. These injections have a powerful anti-inflammatory effect and can therefore cause a lessening of symptoms for weeks or even months. These injections, however, do also have some significant downsides. At best, steroid injections offer temporary relief of a symptom, but they do nothing to treat the cause of your pain. Once the effect of the steroid wears off, your pain will be right back where it started–or even worse.
Inflammation is a natural part of your body’s immune response. By suppressing this response, steroid injections actually stand in the way of your body’s natural healing efforts. Beyond even this effect, steroid injections are actually destructive to stem cells and orthopedic tissues like cartilage and tendons in your body. Though many of the steroids used are found naturally in our bodies, these injections come in much higher concentrations than are produced naturally. This high level kills surrounding cells and leaves the tissue weaker than it was prior to the injection. This tissue death is the reason most orthopedic surgeons won’t perform steroid injections more than a few times per year.
In addition to suppressing your body’s natural healing mechanisms and killing of tissues, high-dose steroid injections have other side effects. Due to the unnaturally high steroid volume, they can change your body’s normal balance and control of cortisol, a stress-regulating hormone. They also lead to problems with blood sugar in diabetics and in extreme cases, they can cause death of bone tissue (avascular necrosis). While these injections can temporarily ease symptoms, most evidence suggests that their effect over time is worse than doing nothing.
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Many Shoulder and Rotator Cuff injuries are good candidates for regenerative interventional orthopedic procedures. Before considering shoulder arthroscopy or shoulder replacement, consider an evaluation of your condition with a regenerative treatment specialist.
- Rotator Cuff Tears and Tendinitis
- Shoulder Instability
- SLAP Tear / Labral Tears
- Shoulder Arthritis
- Other Degenerative Conditions & Overuse Injuries
Many spine injuries and degenerative conditions are good candidates for regenerative treatments and there are a number of studies showing promising results in treating a wide range of spine problems. Spine surgery should be a last resort for anyone, due to the cascade of negative effects it can have on the areas surrounding the surgery. And epidural steroid injections are problematic due to their long-term negative impact on bone density.
- Herniated, Bulging, Protruding Discs
- Degenerative Disc Disease
- SI Joint Syndrome
- Sciatica
- Pinched Nerves and General Back Pain
- And more
Knees are the target of many common sports injuries. Sadly, they are also the target of a number of surgeries that research has frequently shown to be ineffective or minimally effective. Knee arthritis can also be a common cause for aging athletes to abandon the sports and activities they love. Regenerative procedures can be used to treat a wide range of knee injuries and conditions. They can even be used to reduce pain and delay knee replacement for more severe arthritis.
- Knee Meniscus Tears
- Knee ACL Tears
- Knee Instability
- Knee Osteoarthritis
- Other Knee Ligaments / Tendons & Overuse Injuries
- And more
Many spine injuries and degenerative conditions are good candidates for regenerative treatments and there are a number of studies showing promising results in treating a wide range of spine problems. Spine surgery should be a last resort for anyone, due to the cascade of negative effects it can have on the areas surrounding the surgery. And epidural steroid injections are problematic due to their long-term negative impact on bone density.
- Herniated, Bulging, Protruding Discs
- Degenerative Disc Disease
- SI Joint Syndrome
- Sciatica
- Pinched Nerves and General Back Pain
- And more
- Hand and Wrist Arthritis
- Carpal Tunnel Syndrome
- Trigger Finger
- Thumb Arthritis (Basal Joint, CMC, Gamer’s Thumb, Texting Thumb)
- Other conditions that cause pain
Most injuries of the elbow’s tendons and ligaments, as well as arthritis, can be treated non-surgically with regenerative procedures.
- Golfer’s elbow & Tennis elbow
- Arthritis
- Ulnar collateral ligament wear (common in baseball pitchers)
- And more
Hip injuries and degenerative conditions become more common with age. Do to the nature of the joint, it’s not quite as easy to injure as a knee, but it can take a beating and pain often develops over time. Whether a hip condition is acute or degenerative, regenerative procedures can help reduce pain and may help heal injured tissue, without the complications of invasive surgical hip procedures.
- Labral Tear
- Hip Arthritis
- Hip Bursitis
- Hip Sprain, Tendonitis or Inflammation
- Hip Instability
- Ankle Arthritis
- Plantar fasciitis
- Ligament sprains or tears
- Other conditions that cause pain
