Dr. Joshua John-Ram Schacter argues steroid injections carry serious risks: knee replacement within three months of injection increases complications, diabetic patients face systemic problems, and local damage can include infection and tendon rupture. Safer alternatives exist.
Within three months of a steroid injection.
July 30, 2025.
Steroid injections have significant risks. They increase your risk of complication after joint replacement so much that we know that if we do a knee replacement within three months of a steroid injection, it significantly increases your risk of complication. It can also have massive systemic complications with our diabetic patients and can cause all kinds of local and systemic soft tissue complications. Most important to remember is the infection and joint damage. But other cognitive complications can be metabolic disorders, ruptures of ligaments or tendons, and other problems. And so this is a medication that can be very effective. But in the face of effective, useful and safer alternatives, we here at Pinnacle really believe that steroid injections should be a thing of the past.
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