Joint pain treatment (joint injections) at Spire Leicester Hospital

Spire Leicester Hospital is a long-established private hospital providing comprehensive private treatment and care for our patients across East Midlands and beyond. We have orthopaedic surgeons, pain management consultants, sports and exercise consultants, rheumatologists and interventional radiologists who all perform joint injections to help relieve chronic pain and stiffness.

We offer access to tests, scans and treatment without the wait and easy booking with appointment times to suit you.

Getting here

We're located 7 miles from junction 21 of the M1 and easily accessible from the A47 and A6. We’re a 15 minute cab ride from Leicester railway station. We have free parking on-site for you and your visitors.

Your consultations

For your appointments, you'll meet your consultant in one of our 21 ground floor consulting rooms, making things easier if you find walking difficult. During your consultations, we'll:

• Ask about your medical history
• Say whether you need any blood tests or an X-ray, MRI or CT scan so that your joint can be examined in more detail
• Check your blood pressure and blood sugar to make sure an injection is suitable for you
• Explain about the procedure, anaesthetic and any potential risks and complications and how they may affect you
• Give you a chance to ask any questions you have about your treatment

Joint injections can be used to help knee pain, shoulder pain and hip pain, and in particular, pain that’s associated with osteoarthritis.

Once you and your consultant have decided to go ahead with a joint injection, they’ll outline your treatment and ongoing support plan.

On the day of your procedure, you’ll come into Spire Leicester Hospital and meet your healthcare team.

When you’re ready, your consultant will assess your joint to see if any fluid needs to be removed before your injection.

Your consultant will then perform the joint injection.

• They may use a local anaesthetic before or at the same time as the injection to help make the procedure more comfortable for you
• They may use a special imaging machine to see your joint and guide the needle in
• They may make more than one injection, if necessary

In most cases, you'll receive a hydrocortisone joint injection. Hydrocortisone is a steroid which reduces inflammation and relieves pain.

Sometimes, our consultants may recommend special platelet-rich plasma injections. The plasma is taken from your own blood, and when injected into your joint, it’s intended to promote cartilage repair and relieves pain and stiffness due to osteoarthritis.

After your injection, you’ll be given time to recover and when your consultant is happy, you can go home. This is usually after about half an hour.

It’s normal to feel some discomfort from the injection itself and to have some bruising for a few days afterwards. If you had a local anaesthetic, you may not feel much pain but the effects of the anaesthetic will wear off in a couple of hours.

Some people notice an improvement in their joint pain after just a few hours but it can take several days or more for the injection to become fully effective. You can expect the effects to last for a few weeks up to a year, depending on the type and strength of injection you have.

Although everybody’s different and you should always follow your consultant’s advice, here’s a typical recovery timeline for joint injections: