Ultrasound Guided Injections

Our physicians at Adirondack Rehabilitation Medicine have been trained in using ultrasound to guide injections. This allows injections to be performed safely around nerves, tendons, and blood vessels. Injections can be more accurately placed within joints to allow the advantage of improved safety and improved outcomes. Studies comparing ultrasound guided injections to blind injections demonstrate dramatically improved accuracy depending on the structure. A study of the acromioclavicular joint of the shoulder showed the accuracy of blind injections was 40% and with ultrasound guidance 100%.

In addition to injections into joints our physicians routinely inject around nerves, tendons and into bursa.

Injections may use numbing medications, steroids, viscosupplementation, and sometimes your own blood products or platelet rich plasma (PRP).

In the case of carpal tunnel injections we inject a small dose of numbing medicine (lidocaine) and steroid (methylprednisolone) around the median nerve in the wrist. The technique we employ includes micro-hydro dissection of the nerve from the surrounding connective tissue. This allows the nerve to move more freely within the carpal tunnel and has been shown to provide relief of carpal tunnel symptoms for an average of 6 months. In some cases the procedure can provide relief lasting years.

The following video demonstrates a carpal tunnel injection being performed in our office.