What to do before a knee procedure

What to bring along to the first visit

Pack the medicine list, any X-ray from another office, and your notes about soreness. Include trouble with stairs, sleep, walking, rising from a chair, or doing your usual housework. At QC Kinetix, medical providers—clinicians who examine the knee and handle the procedure—can discuss regenerative treatments, meaning non-surgical choices such as PRP, or platelet-rich plasma, prepared by concentrating blood drawn from you. The notes will keep small but useful facts from getting lost during the exam.

When to get medical care sooner

Get prompt medical help when your knee is hot, badly swollen, and paired with fever. Sudden trouble standing after a fall or hard twist also needs quick attention. Those signs aren't a routine reason to ask for a knee shot. If you're unsure about the urgency, call a medical service that can guide you.

What to watch closely at home after a procedure

Follow the written directions about medicine, dressings, driving, and activity once you're home. Mild soreness may settle, but don't wait several days with growing heat, swelling, or severe pain. Note when relief begins and whether it carries through walking, sleeping, or using stairs. Don't pay for another round until the clinician has reviewed those results with you.

Sources

1. The 2019 ACR/Arthritis Foundation OA guideline makes a STRONG recommendation for intra-articular glucocorticoid injection in knee OA, alongside strong recommendations for exercise, weight loss, self-management, tai chi, cane use, bracing and NSAIDs; intra-articular steroid injection for HAND OA is only conditionally recommended.

   Kolasinski SL, et al. — 2019 American College of Rheumatology/Arthritis Foundation Guideline for the Management of Osteoarthritis of the Hand, Hip, and Knee.. Arthritis Rheumatol, 2020. DOI: 10.1002/art.41142.

2. The 2015 Cochrane review of 27 trials (1,767 participants) found intra-articular corticosteroid better than sham for knee OA pain (SMD -0.40, 95% CI -0.58 to -0.22; NNTB 8), but the benefit decayed with time: moderate at 1-2 weeks, small at 13 weeks, and no evidence of any effect at 26 weeks. All outcomes were graded LOW quality.

   Jüni P, et al. — Intra-articular corticosteroid for knee osteoarthritis.. Cochrane Database Syst Rev, 2015. DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD005328.pub3.

3. In a 2-year double-blind RCT of 140 patients with symptomatic knee OA and ultrasound synovitis, 40 mg intra-articular triamcinolone every 12 weeks produced significantly greater cartilage volume loss than saline (index compartment cartilage thickness change -0.21 mm vs -0.10 mm; between-group difference -0.11 mm, 95% CI -0.20 to -0.03) with no significant difference in knee pain.

   McAlindon TE, et al. — Effect of Intra-articular Triamcinolone vs Saline on Knee Cartilage Volume and Pain in Patients With Knee Osteoarthritis: A Randomized Clinical Trial.. JAMA, 2017. DOI: 10.1001/jama.2017.5283.

4. A clinical review of peripheral joint injections frames them as a treatment for joint-mediated pain (arthritis, tendinopathy, bursitis) that has NOT responded to conservative management, and states plainly that these injections are typically not curative - their objective is to reduce pain enough to allow physical and pharmacologic rehabilitation to work.

   Marcolina A, et al. — Peripheral Joint Injections.. Phys Med Rehabil Clin N Am, 2022. DOI: 10.1016/j.pmr.2022.01.005.

5. An estimated 14 million people in the United States have symptomatic knee osteoarthritis, with advanced disease (Kellgren/Lawrence grade 3-4) making up more than half of cases. More than half of everyone with symptomatic knee OA is younger than 65, and nearly 2 million cases are in adults under 45.

   Deshpande BR, Katz JN, Solomon DH, et al. — Number of Persons With Symptomatic Knee Osteoarthritis in the US: Impact of Race and Ethnicity, Age, Sex, and Obesity.. Arthritis Care & Research, 2016. DOI: 10.1002/acr.22897.