Hi  all

I would like to highlight some of the issues involved in injecting cortisone inside hip joint. Cortisone  is the powerful anti-inflammatory  medicine  available  right now. It is  no doubt  a life saving medicine. However it got its own side effects,  especially when it is injected inside a joint.  It is  like  a double edged sword. It takes away the pain but it slowly  cause more damage to the joint. The  pain relief is only temporary,  may be for  few weeks  or  few months.  Cortisone  directly cause damage to  the  articular surface  and also since it masks the pain  the joint  is  subjected to more trauma  and   thereby causing more  damage. When the head  of femur is  damaged  and become soft,  the chance of getting  resurfacing  is  less. And also  cortisone injected joint is more prone for infection due to direct inoculation  of micro organism  and   lowering immunity. Hence this  cortisone injection is to be  avoided.

For some reason  the OS  in USA  are  injecting more  cortisone inside the joint. The American patients coming to us  for resurfacing  invariably  had atleast couple of cortisone injections  before.  This may be because  it is FDA  and insurance approved procedure.  In other part of world  this is  practiced very  cautiously and rarely. Please avoid  getting cortisone into your joint.  

Dr.G. Balasubramanian
Hip Resurfacing Surgeon India

www.hipresurfacingcenter.com