Why does my knee hurt?

Abstract

Osteoarthritis of the knee is an increasingly common cause of knee pain and disability. Once rest, icing, exercises and pain medicines have failed, many turn to knee injections. Steroid injections have long been the standard therapy for pain reduction, but the benefits are often limited to one to two months, and it is not recommended to have more than three to four steroid injections in the same knee. Hyaluronic acid injections – a synthetic joint lubricant – have been shown to have milder, but longer-lasting pain relief than steroid injections, and may slow the progression of knee degeneration.