Is there a limit on how many joint injections to have?

Patients often ask me if there is a limit to how many corticosteroid injections they can have into their knee. Typically steroid injections are used any for three months or so as indicated and the indication would be the amount of pain relief they get. Once the injections get to be less than three months then we’ll usually be more aggressive with either Hyaluronic acid injections or to consider surgical therapy. The amount of injections patients receive in their knee can be highly variable as long as they’re effective and lasting several months then I will continue giving them indefinitely.

Injections are used for pain relief. There’s a debate whether the injections will cause further damage to the knee joint. My opinion is that the steroids are helping people increase their function. There is already disease in the joint and they do not cause further damage.