Trigger finger injection | Painful stiff finger

Trigger finger is a condition that arises when the gristle around the tendons in the palm of the hand becomes thickened and forms a small firm nodule.

These nodules are part of the tendon. The tendon is the tough white band that joins the muscle onto the bone. The tendons need to be able to move freely as they glide and slide around the palm of the hand.

If a nodule forms then the tendon will not move freely. It will be prone to getting stuck from time to time because of the shape of the bones and the layout of the muscle.

When this tendon nodule causes sticking then the condition is called "Trigger Finger" - or sometimes "Trigger Thumb."

Trigger finger injection treatment is designed to shrink and soften the nodule - making the tendon run freely and smoothly again.

Trigger finger injection is often succesful but some patients eventually get a recurrence of the problem and need a surgical operation to clear things.

Steroid Injections For Pain | Injection Treatment | Painful Joints

All steroid type injections are designed to relieve pain by relieving inflammation.

All of the steroids that are commonly used for injection are from the anti inflammatory family of drugs.

They include drugs like Kenalog (triamcinolone), Depomedrol or Depomedrone (methylprednisolone) and hydrocortisone acetate.

Steroid injections for pain work by relieving and switching off the inflammation cells and inflammation pain pathways in the vicinity of the area injected.

Most of the injected steroid drugs will stay around in the system for up to ten days, working away slowly to clear up inflammation damage and thus reduce pain. Not all pain conditions will respond to a steroid injection - because not all pain conditions have inflammation as the cause of the problem.

Back Pain Injections | Treatment For Back Problems | Injection

Back pain injections vary in both technique and drugs used depending on what the underlying problem is.


Commonly used back pain injection treatments include the following:

• epidural injection for nerve root pain - this can be either a so called caudal epidural injection or a lumbar epidural injection
• facet joint injections
• facet joint nerve blocking injections
• facet joint denervation injections
• sacroiliac joint injections with steroid and local anesthetic
• soft tissue injections
• trigger point injections
• local intramuscular injection techniques are also sometimes used.

You'll find articles about all of the above back pain injections throughout the site. Just use the search function. If you can't find what you're looking for then leave a question for Doctor Cameron using the box to your right. 

Injections for India | Travel to India | Vaccinations Needed

This question was asked by a reader:

What should I do about injections for India? How do I discover the vaccinations I require for travel to India on holiday?

I will be travelling with my wife and son who is four years old. Will my son also need travel injections for India or will he be covered by his normal childhood vaccinations?

Is there a special travel clinic I can visit to plan injections needed?

Many thanks

B12 Injection Side Effects | Vitamin B 12 Side Effects

Most people who have an injection of vitamin b12 into the muscle will experience no side effects at all - but some will, and this seems particularly true if the vitamin is being given in higher than normal dose schedules - or when it is given very frequently.

B12 injection side effects include (in no particular order of frequency):

• nausea
• headache
• dizzy feelings
• febrile episodes or feverish and flushed feelings
• allergic or hypersensitivity reactions to the vitamin b12 or to other chemicals in the injection liquid
• rash or itch after B12 injection
• redness or pain at the vitamin b12 injection site or in the muscle around the site of b12 injection
• low potassium levels
• high platelet counts
• vitamin b12 injections can also cause a change in the color of the urine

You should also note that in some countries vitamin b12 injection is called Hydroxocobalamin

Facial fat injections | Lip Injections | Fat injected to face

There is increasing interest in the use of fat taken from elsewhere on the body, liquidized or treated and then reinjected by a cosmetic specialist doctor.

These facial fat injections are designed to create a change in the contours of the face - particularly the lips, cheeks or chin.

Have you have facial fat injections?

Was the outcome good? How long did the effects last?

Leave a comment and share your experiences.

Tennis elbow injections | elbow pain treatment

Tennis elbow is caused by inflammation on the bone at the outer side of the elbow. The pain and inflammation arises at the bit of bone where extensor muscles of the wrist are attached.

Tennis elbow injections are a good way of relieving this pain and inflammation - although other elbow pain treatment options are also available.

Side effects of tennis elbow injection include a transient worsening of the pain, flushing or redness in the injection area - and later, in a few patients, some dimpling or whitening of the skin in the area of the injection.

Tennis elbow injections are not usually painful if they are performed with a careful technique and by an experienced injection doctor.

Sterile Water for Injection | Clean Injections | Sterile Technique

Most medical injections use sterile water as the diluting liquid for the drug or medicine to be injected.

Some drugs come already diluted in a vial or an ampoule, others need to be diluted. Usually the nurse or doctor will dilute things using a separate vial of sterile water for injection. Rarely saline (salty water) will be used and - occasionally - some drugs or vaccines will come with their own special liquid that is required to activate the drug. 

Sterile water for injection usually comes in glass or plastic snap top ampoules. 

All injections need to be done with a sterile or clean technique. This is particularly important for joint injections where the risk of introducing an infection is high.

Saline breast injection | breast enlarging injection treatments

Breast implants in the past were usually filled with silicone. This is no longer the case because of the side effects many women experienced if the silicone leaked from the prosthetic bag in the chest wall.

Nowadays, the implants are full of saline - or simple body fluid balanced salty water.

In some cases the breast implant can be topped up later (or deflated a little) by adding or removing some of the saline. This is not possible in most cases because the implants are not designed to allow that to happen.

There is no point in simply injecting the saline into the breast area because, although it would stay around for an hour or two, it would be rapidly absorbed into the blood stream and would simply disappear into the body.

Cervical cancer injection | Vaccination against cervical cancer

The vaccination program against cervical cancer promises to be one of medicines biggest breakthrough developments in the last twenty years or more.

A cervical cancer injection - or vaccination against cervix cancer - has been developed and shown to be effective against the HPV virus which causes the condition.

Several countries have already completed mass vaccination campaigns of young women in the hope that cervical cancer will be nearly eradicated in coming generations. There is even some debate about extending the vaccination offer to young men - some of whom also carry the HPV virus.

So far the cervical cancer injections have gone smoothly with many millions of young women now immune to HPV. Few side effects have been recorded and so far the outlook seems bright.

Cortisone Injections for Back Pain | Treatment Steroid Injection

Steroid injections for back pain are used by many doctors to treat chronic (and sometimes acute) episodes of back pain.

Cortisone injections for back pain are less common now than before - in the sense that cortisone has been replaced for the most part by other more modern steroid agents. Drugs like triamcinolone or methylprednisolone are more often used nowadays.

A doctor using a steroid injection to treat back pain will target the injection treatment at the area which is causing the pain symptoms. This could be the facet joints of the spine, the muscles, the sacroiliac joints or the nerve roots as they emerge from the spinal column.

Cortisone injection treatment for back pain is not always successful but it can make a big difference for many patients.

Rooster comb injections | Joint Pain | Hyaluronic Acid

Most hyaluronic acid injections or hyalgan injections are now manufactured artificially using bacterial extraction and genetic techniques.

Drugs such as synvisc, ostenil and other similar products are effective for the treatment of joint pain and osteoarthritis.

When these products were first introduced onto the market some years ago the hyalgan chemical was not manufactured - but rather it was extracted from the combs of roosters. This resulted in these treatments sometimes being called "Rooster Comb Injections"

More sports medicine and orthopedic doctors than ever are now using the modern equivalent of these rooster injections and the results are usually excellent.

Collagen Lip Injections | Prices | Side effects

Have you had collagen lip injections?

We'd love it if you could share your experiences here so that others can get a handle on how effective the technique is.

What price did you pay? Was the collagen lip injection technique painful? Side effects ... did you have any?

More and more women are seeking injection treatments for cosmetic purposes - and collagen lip treatments seem to be very popular. But is there a risk? And are the end results always good?

Leave a comment - share your experiences of collagen lip injections.

B12 injections for weight loss | B 12 injections | Vitamins

Is there any good evidence to show that vitamin b12 injections for weight loss are effective?

Now - to be fair, the research evidence is not great on this topic - and it's probably not good enough to really reach a decision one way or another.

It's certainly true that simple b 12 injections on their own will not be enough to result in loss of weight. You might choose to have them in addition to a strict diet or exercise regimen - but even that has no solid basis in science.

Have you tried weight loss injections of vitamins?

Did it work for you?

Leave a comment below:

Vitamin B12 Injections | Side Effects | B12 Injections Weight Loss

Vitamin B12 injections have been around for many years.

B12 is one of the most important vitamins in the body and a lack of it can lead to a number of symptoms including fatigue and an unusual kind of anemia with large blood cells - sometimes called macrocytic anemia or pernicious anaemia.

B12 is absorbed from the gut but problems with bowel function or surgical operations can interfere with this  and lead to vitamin b12 deficit problems.

Apart from local pain there are no real B12 injection side effects to worry about.

Some people have claimed that taking extra injections of vitamin b12 can aid weight loss but this is not proven.