Joint pain treatment (joint injections) at Spire Wellesley Hospital

Based a couple miles from Southend town centre, we provide comprehensive private hospital care for our patients across Essex and the South East. Our orthopaedic consultants 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

Spire Wellesley Hospital is a couple of miles from Southend town centre, just off the A127. We’re a short taxi ride from the train station, which has a fast and regular connection to London Liverpool Street. We have free on-site parking available for you and your visitors.

Your consultations

All your consultations will take place in one of our 16 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 Wellesley 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: