How long after a steroid injection does the speaker advise avoiding knee replacement?

Dr. Joshua John-Ram SchacterDr. Joshua Schacter, DO FAAOS, is America’s Holistic Orthopedic Surgeon, with nearly two decades of surgical expertise.

Don’t Mask Your Joint Pain. Heal Your Joints with Orthobiologics.

17 Aug 2023 · 1 min

Watch on YouTube

0:59

Dr. Joshua John-Ram Schacter explains why steroid injections for knee pain mask the problem instead of fixing it. Repeated injections can damage the joint, and getting one within three months of knee replacement surgery raises infection risk. He argues you need to address what's actually wrong: weight, conditioning, and exercise.

Questions this video answers

The speaker says they "wouldn't want to do a knee replacement within three months of a steroid injection."

Chapters

We really wouldn't want to do a knee replacement within three months of a steroid injection, because we know that the steroid significantly increases your risk of infection after knee replacement. When we do a steroid injection, we're doing that to relieve the patient of pain. But just like everything else we do in modern American medicine, it's an episodic treatment. You come in with a problem, we have a short term fix, and we're just kicking the can down the road to try and buy you some time with relief. Well, the problem with that strategy is that, sure, we give you a little bit of relief of pain, but it's essentially masking your symptoms. It's not dealing with any of the other problems that can contribute to your joint pain, like unwanted weight gain, difficulty with exercise, deconditioning, all manner of problems that can contribute to your joint pain, and it's worsening your joint as you go. So every time you get a steroid injection, not only does it mask your symptoms and give you a little bit of symptom relief, but it's actually damaging your joint as we do.