October 27, 2017 admin

Advances in the treatment of knee pain

Genicular nerve blocks target the nerves which supply the knee. This minimally invasive technique can be performed as a day case procedure under local anaesthetic and light sedation. It does not involve injecting any steroid into the knee joint itself. Local anaesthetic and steroid are injected around these three sensory nerves using ultrasound or x-ray guidance. If a good response to these diagnostic injections is achieved, a denervation procedure may be offered. Genicular nerve denervation involves placing special needles alongside these nerves, which can be heated up at their tip to create a gap lesion in the three genicular nerves. This may produce significant longer lasting pain relief. This can be very useful for younger patients with osteoarthritis, who wish to delay having a knee replacement or for older patients with significant other health problems that are not suitable for a knee replacement.