Ankle Injections

Your ankles and knees are the joints that have to carry your weight, whether you’re walking, running, jumping, or playing your favorite sport. Ankle pain and knee pain, therefore, are conditions to take seriously. Since your ankles are so much smaller and more flexible than your knees, they’re more prone to injuries. Protect them!

But when you’re experiencing ankle pain, seek out your doctor. And while surgery is an option for extreme cases, a steroid injection for ankle pain can set you on the path to regaining your step.

Reasons to Get a Steroid Injection for Ankle Pain

As long as you haven’t broken a bone or torn a tendon, you may be a candidate to receive steroid injection ankle treatments. Some reasons your doctor recommends a steroid injection for ankle pain include:

Arthritis in your ankle
Tarsal tunnel syndrome
Achilles tendonitis
Plantar fasciitis
Peroneal tendonitis
Reflex sympathetic dystrophy, which is often treated with a nerve block

All these conditions cause ankle pain. Some cause painful inflammation. Your steroid injection for ankle pain leads to less inflammation, which means less pain. It not only eases the pain you’re experiencing, but it also helps your ankle heal — because when you’re not fighting pain all the time, your body can concentrate on getting better.

The First Steps for Treating Ankle Pain

The first step is to get an accurate diagnosis. Your doctor gives you a physical exam to determine the exact cause of your pain. If needed, you undergo x-rays or an MRI, but often your doctor can diagnose your condition without them.

The first treatment options are often rest, alternating hot and cold, compression and elevation. You can take over-the-counter non-steroidal anti-inflammatories for pain and swelling. If these at-home remedies don’t produce the desired results, a steroid injection for ankle pain may be the next step.

Receiving a Steroid Injection in Your Ankle

The procedure is performed in our clinic. It takes no more than 15 minutes. The injection follows a step-by-step process:

You’re made comfortable, perhaps with your ankle on an x-ray table, with the injection spot on top. Your doctor may need to use the x-ray machine to get real-time fluoroscopic images of your ankle. He uses those images to guide the needle.
When the needle is in place, the physician injects the medicine right where it’s needed, right where you feel the pain. Your doctor may have to put the medicine in multiple places, which surround and coats the problem area.
Once the last injection is made, you can relax while you recover under observation for a short time to see how the medication worked.

If successful, you should feel an immediate reduction in pain. The injection contains a small amount of local anesthetic, which acts right away. But when it wears off in several hours, your pain may return. That’s normal. The steroid medication needs a couple of days to really start working. In the meantime, your doctor may give you some pain medication to get you through the first few days after your injection.

Cortisone Injection in Ankle Side Effects

There aren’t many risks and side effects from this procedure as long as you follow your doctor’s post-procedure instructions. Ensure the injection site stays clean and dry, don’t do any strenuous physical activity, and watch for signs of an infection. Rare cortisone injection in ankle side effects include:

An infection
Skin that looks lighter around the injection spot
Weakened tendons or bones
Injured nerve or damaged cartilage

It’s also possible that the cortisone crystallizes in the joint, which is why your doctor limits the number of steroid injections you can get in a given time period. You can get them no more than once every six weeks and no more than three injections a year.

Febin Melepura, MD is a top rated, best in class interventional pain management doctor. He is a nationally recognized pain relief specialist and is among the top pain care doctors in New York City and the country. He is an award winning expert and contributor to a prominent media outlets.

Dr. Febin Melepura has been recognized for his thoughtful, thorough, modern approach to treating chronic pain and, among other accolades, has been named a “top pain management doctor in New York”, and one of “America’s Top Doctors™” for an advanced sports injury treatments.