Knee Arthritis
Osteoarthritis Knee Pain
Most people are familiar with arthritis, but don’t have a complete understanding of the condition. Arthritis is a way of describing many conditions involving inflammation that causes joint pain.
Osteoarthritis is the most common form of arthritis and is caused by the cartilage of the joint being worn down over time or trauma. It is most common in the knees and cannot be reversed. However, there are some treatments available to help improve joint function or reduce pain.
Over 32 million adults in the US have osteoarthritis, also known as degenerative joint disease. The risk of developing osteoarthritis increases with overuse of the joint, injury to the joint, age, and obesity. Women are more likely to develop osteoarthritis and genetics can indicate increased risk for osteoarthritis.
OUR TREATMENT OPTIONS INCLUDE
Genicular artery embolization
Genicular artery embolization is a minimally-invasive treatment for knee pain caused by osteoarthritis. This innovative procedure is performed by an Interventional Radiologist in an outpatient setting. By placing a small access point in the groin or wrist, we’re able to insert a small catheter into the Genicular Artery. The catheter allows us to identify abnormal vessels that have grown that cause inflammation and pain in the knee joint. Once the vessels are identified, we inject biocompatible embolization spheres into the affected blood vessels that feed the inflammation and pain. By blocking ONLY these abnormal vessels, patients are experiencing a significant reduction in inflammation and pain and are able to resume normal daily activities.
Peripheral nerve stimulation
Peripheral nerve stimulation, or PNS, is an FDA-approved quick-acting pain relief treatment for treating chronic pain, including chronic knee pain. It is UNIQUE in that it is one of the few treatments you can TRIAL for 1 week, before you commit to the treatment long term. In particular, PNS is an excellent therapy for resistant pain or those patient in which painkillers don't work. To explain, PNS is a minimally invasive same-day procedure that reduces pain immediately. Notably, peripheral nerve stimulation blocks the pain signals from a specific body area or sensory nerve, relieving chronic pain.
How soon does the patient experience pain relief with peripheral nerve stimulation therapy?
PNS starts working immediately, and with proper follow-ups, the pain reduction effects can last more than a year. As an illustration, PNS can alleviate chronic knee pain produced by osteoarthritis, lesions, degenerative diseases, and knee replacement surgery. Of course, our doctors can apply PNS to practically any body part, including the hands, shoulders, neck, groin, spine, and head. Peripheral nerve stimulation may eliminate the need for pain medications and painkillers.
How does peripheral nerve stimulation work?
Peripheral nerve stimulation relieves chronic knee pain by preventing the brain from receiving knee pain signals. Imagine the pain is a message a body part sends to the brain. If the brain doesn’t receive the message, the brain won’t produce the pain sensation. In effect, PNS blocks most pain signals from a particular sensory nerve blocking the brain from perceiving pain. In detail, PNS produces a small electrical current every time the knee sends a pain signal. This small electrical current produced by PNS intercepts the pain signal (message), blocking it from reaching the brain. In other words, PNS acts as a pain signal (feeling) bouncer, blocking or preventing selected pain signals from reaching the brain. As a result, the patient has pain chronic knee pain alleviation and requires none or less pain medication.
What happens during the peripheral nerve stimulation same-day procedure?
The peripheral nerve stimulation procedure consists of two steps to achieve the greatest pain alleviation from this pain therapy. Each step is a minimally invasive office procedure performed in less than an hour. The first step involves placing a temporary PNS on the affected area to establish that at least 50% of chronic pain has been reduced. In the second step, your doctor will implant a permanent PNS after the patient confirms a permanent pain reduction of at least 50% over one or two weeks.
The first step is a temporary peripheral nerve stimulation placement TRIAL.
- A pain specialist identifies the sensory nerves’ location responsible for transmitting pain sensation from the affected knee.
- The pain doctor localized the affected knee sensory nerves using ultrasound or other imaging equipment.
- After numbing the area, the pain specialist makes small incisions in the thigh.
- After confirming the sensory nerve identification, your doctor inserts a tiny electrode similar to a small needle in the selected nerve. The tiny electrode is connected to a thin wire. This procedure is repeated in other selected nerves to block all sensory knee nerves.
- A pain specialist connects the electrode wires to an external peripheral nerve stimulation device and sets the proper firing rate to block the pain signals.
- After a couple of hours and the patient’s confirmation of at least 50% of pain relief, the patient can go home.
Second Step, permanent PNS implantation
- After corroborating pain treatment success by patient confirmation of at least 50% of pain relief, the patient is ready for permanent PNS implantation.
- After numbing the area, your pain specialist makes a small incision to implant a small PNS device.
- The thin electrode wires are inserted into the battery of the permanent PNS.
- Your pain doctor places the permanent PNS below the skin to relieve chronic knee pain.
- After confirming treatment success, the patient goes home.
ADVANTAGES OF PNS:
This is a unique treatment which allows you to TRY the treatment for 1 week, before deciding to commit to a long term solution. If it doesn’t work, then we just remove the leads. If your pain was reduced, we can make the leads a long term solution by embedding them just under the skin surface.
Our Simple Process
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