Caring Medical
& Rehabilitation Services
715 Lake Street, Suite 600
Oak Park, Illinois 60301
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Osteoarthritis - right knee - synvisc

I have osteoarthritis in my right knee. I had a steroid injections two years ago which made my pain much worse about 4 months after the injection. Later I had 3 Prolotherapy injections, (Watch where do Prolotherapy injections go and do they hurt?) 4-6 weeks apart which helped a lot. The prolo reduced the stiffness and improved the stability. Then I got greedy and had two Synvisc injections and had an allergic reaction which resulted in bad swelling in my knee. About 2 months after the swelling went down I had 3 more Prolo treatments. My knee is still not doing as well as it was after the first series of 3 Prolo treatments. Could the Synvisc injections be inhibiting the Prolo treatments? I have recently had ultrasound treatments which I'm going to stop because they are making the pain worse.

Dear Synvisc Reaction: You need to determine is your condition a degenerative one or an inflammatory one. It appears that the synvisc caused you to have an inflammatory knee condition. I would get CRP, ESR, Rheumatoid factor, and ANA blood test. These would test for inflammatory knee conditions. If you have swelling in the joint, have the doctor send the fluid for crystal analysis. You may have pseudogout. In our office if we felt that your condition was degenerative we would change the solution and possibly change the frequency of injections. Also make sure you aren't doing any stretches or exercises that are hurting the repair. Answered by Ross Hauser, M.D.