Joint pain treatment (joint injections) at Spire St Anthony's Hospital

Spire St Anthony’s Hospital is a large private hospital providing an extensive range of treatments and services for our patients in Sutton and the surrounding Surrey and South London area. We offer a choice of expert rheumatologists, orthopaedic consultants, pain management consultants and sports and exercise medicine (SEM) physicians who perform joint injections and are committed to healthcare excellence.

You can expect to receive treatment without the wait, as well as high-quality aftercare that’s personalised to you. Our facilities are clean and modern with all the comfort and convenience you’d expect at home.

Getting here

Spire St Anthony's Hospital is close to Sutton and Epsom. Sutton and Cheam stations are both on the Victoria and London Bridge line. Worcester Park station is on the Waterloo to Epsom line. We have free on-site parking available for you and your visitors.

Your consultations

All your consultations will take place in one of our 19 accessible consultation rooms, so don’t worry if you have joint pain when walking. During your consultations, we'll:

• Ask about your medical history
• Say whether you need blood tests, an X-ray and/or an MRI or CT scan so they can examine your joint in more detail
• Check your blood pressure and blood sugar to make sure the hydrocortisone 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 joint injections, they’ll outline your treatment and ongoing support plan.

When you come in to Spire St Anthony’s Hospital for your joint injection, you’ll:

• Meet your healthcare team
• Have your joint felt and flexed, 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 recovery 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.

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