Hip Injections

Hip joint injections involve injecting medicine directly into the hip joint to diagnose the source of pain or treat pain due to conditions such as arthritis, injury or mechanical stress of the hip joint. Hip pain may be experienced in the hip, buttock, leg or lower back. The injection contains a combination of a numbing medicine and cortisone (an anti-inflammatory agent). The numbing medicine delivers temporary relief from pain, provided the hip joint is the source of the pain. It thus serves a diagnostic function and helps to confirm or deny the source of pain. Cortisone serves to reduce the inflammation in the joint, providing long-term pain benefits.

Procedure

If needed, medication is administered for relaxation through an IV line. You will lie face down on an X-ray table. The small area where the injection needs to be administered is numbed with an anaesthetic. You may feel a sting for a few seconds. A small needle is then accurately placed by your doctor into the joint guided by real-time X-ray images (fluoroscopy). Before injecting the medicine, a contrast dye is injected through this needle into the joint to confirm that the medicine will reach the joint. A combination of anaesthetic and anti-inflammatory cortisone is then slowly injected into the joint. The whole procedure usually takes about 30 to 60 minutes.

After the procedure

After the injection, you are made to rest for 20 to 30 minutes and then asked to move the joint, provoking pain. You may or may not find a decrease in pain, depending on whether the injected joint is the main source of the pain. You are also asked to maintain a record of relief in pain during the coming week. Physiotherapy may also be recommended. Even when pain relief is significant, you should increase activities gradually over one to two weeks to avoid reappearance of pain.

Risk and complications

The probable risks of hip injections include swelling and pain in the joint after the injection, infection, depigmentation of the skin, local thinning of the skin and rupture of a tendon.

If the injected hip joint is the source of the pain, the pain may reduce two to five days after the injection. However, if no improvement is found within ten days after the injection further diagnostic tests may be required to ascertain the cause of pain.