Joint pain treatment (joint injections) at Spire Regency Hospital Macclesfield

Spire Regency Hospital takes pride in providing a high standard of care for our patients across South Manchester, Cheshire, Derbyshire, Staffordshire and Greater Manchester. Our orthopaedic consultants and consultant radiologists perform joint injections to help relieve chronic pain and stiffness.

We offer fast access to diagnostic tests and scans, so you don’t have to wait long to find out if treatment is right for you.

Getting here

We’re located just five minutes away from Macclesfield town centre and Macclesfield station, with free on-site parking for you and your visitors.

Your consultations

You’ll meet your consultant in one of our 10 consultation rooms. All of our rooms are accessible and on the ground floor, so there’s no need to worry about stairs if your joint pain is causing you mobility problems.

During your consultations, we’ll:

• Ask about your medical history
• Recommend imaging scans and/or blood tests to investigate your joint and any underlying conditions in more detail, if required by your consultant
• Check your blood pressure and blood sugar to make sure joint injections are suitable for you
• Explain in more detail how joint injections work, your expected outcome and any potential risks or complications
• Give you an opportunity to discuss your expectations and needs
• Outline a treatment and ongoing support plan that’s tailored to you

Knee pain, shoulder pain and hip pain are common symptoms that may be improved with joint injections, especially joint pain associated with osteoarthritis.

When you come in to Spire Regency Hospital for your joint injection, you’ll:

• Meet your healthcare team
• Have your joint assessed and manipulated, and possibly have excess fluid removed with a needle if necessary
• Have a thin needle injected into your joint containing the steroid and sometimes an anaesthetic to numb the area
• Be given a sedative to help you relax (if agreed upon with your consultant beforehand)

Sometimes, your consultant will use an X-ray machine positioned over your joint to guide the injection. They may also perform more than one joint injection, if necessary.

In some cases, our consultants use special platelet-rich plasma injections. The plasma is taken from your own blood, and when injected into your joint, it promotes cartilage repair and relieves pain and stiffness due to osteoarthritis.

After your injection, you’ll be taken to a private ward room to relax until your consultant is happy for you to 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 will wear off in a couple of hours.

Some people notice an improvement in their chronic pain after just a few hours but it can take several days 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.

To make your recovery easier, you’ll be given advice on pain management and may also be given an exercise plan from a physiotherapist to help you get active again.

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