The Infiltrations are injections of a medicinal liquid made into the joints (intra-articular infiltration) or in the space surrounding the joint (periarticular infiltration).If, depending on the pathology to be treated, greater injection precision is required, ultrasound is used and in this case we speak of ultrasound-guided infiltrations that are performed by the sonographer, generally these are the Intra-articular infiltrations.
Infiltrations are recommended to treat: non-infectious arthritis, arthrosis, confropathy, capsulitis, bursitis, radicular syndromes, fibrositis, tenosynovitis, enthesopathy but also, in some specific cases, for gonarthrosis, spondylosis, coxarthrosis, rhizarthrosis, or mild arthrosis of the shoulder.
There are cases, however, in which making the infiltration is not possible, these are in fact situations where joint or periarticular infections are present, where there is the presence of a blood effusion in the joints, or where there are dermatological issues such as erythema, pustules, or signs of psoriasis.
On the other hand, with regard to the drugs that are injected during infiltrations (ultrasound-guided and non-muscle-guided infiltrations), the most common are: local anesthetics (lidocaine) for peri-atricular infiltrations – pain-relieving purposes, cortisone drugs for intra-articular or peri-articular infiltrations – anti-inflammatory and pain-relieving purposes, hyaluronic acid for intramuscular infiltrations- viscosupplementation.
Infiltrations are primarily aimed at lasting pain reduction, improved joint mobility, and reduced joint effusion.
