I watched as my sister got a steroid injection into her knee at the doctor’s office. I’m a little doubtful that they can really know the medication is going into the knee. Shouldn’t they be doing this with some kind of X-ray or something?

Steroid injection into the knee is a well-known effective short-term method of getting control of disabling pain and quickly improving function. Since the effects wear off after seven to 10 days, it’s not meant for long-term pain control. But it can help a person get on a pain control program with follow-up using nonsteroidal antiinflammatories (NSAIDs) and analgesics (pain relievers like Tylenol).

Studies have investigated whether or not physicians can really deliver the injection into the joint space. The overall conclusion of research looking at this factor is that properly trained medical staff can deliver the medication into the knee joint with no problem at all. Other joints such as the hip or shoulder may be more problematic requiring the use of fluoroscopy, a special real-time (3-D) X-ray that allows the surgeon to see what her or she is doing.