Hip Injection

Hip Injection for arthritis or for hip joint pain

Injecting into the hip is becoming increasingly common as a treatment for arthritis or hip pain. The hip is a deep seated joint in the body and it's one of the injection techniques that really does require an x-ray machine to guide the needle.

This x-ray guide technique is called "fluoroscopy" and allows the doctor to make sure that the needle is properly placed in the joint before giving the hip injection.

Hip injections are an effective treatment for osteoarthritis or inflammatory arthritis in the hip joint.

Sometimes the injection consists of an anti inflammation drug such as a steroid. Sometimes the doctor will choose to use a viscosupplementation hip injection with Synvisc or Ostenil.

Occasionally only local anaesthetic will be injected - this latter approach can help your specialist to decide if the pain you are having really is coming from the hip or not. This is often called the "walking test" or "walk test."  A physical therapist will watch you walk and measure pain before the procedure. The hip joint injection is then done using x-ray guidance and only local anesthetic is injected. Thirty minutes or so later the physical therapist will assess you again to see if pain and mobility have improved ... if they have then it's certain your pain lies in the hip.