As knee osteoarthritis progresses and joint damage increases, conservative treatments lose their impact, and your pain worsens. If you reach this stage and you’re not ready for surgery, it’s time to consider genicular artery embolization (GAE).
GAE is a safe, minimally invasive outpatient treatment that dramatically eases pain by reducing inflammation. It also delivers long-lasting pain relief for most patients.
Our Centers for Pain Control and Vein Care team includes interventional radiologists with extensive GAE experience. We can evaluate your knee osteoarthritis and determine if you qualify for GAE. In the meantime, here’s what you need to know.
Osteoarthritis is a wear-and-tear disease caused by years of repetitive joint movement and pressure. Over time, ongoing knee movements gradually wear down cartilage and bone.
However, osteoarthritis also causes inflammation. While the cartilage and underlying bone can become inflamed, it typically affects the synovium (the tissue lining the joint).
Most people with osteoarthritis aren’t aware of the inflammation because it’s not visible. By comparison, inflammation caused by rheumatoid arthritis causes noticeable swelling, tenderness, and redness.
Even though the inflammation isn’t visible, it significantly contributes to your pain and disability. Synovial inflammation (synovitis) is associated with more severe joint disease. Synovitis accelerates cartilage loss, increases pain, reduces mobility, and amplifies disability.
GAE treats osteoarthritis pain by reducing inflammation. An embolization procedure can help after therapies like steroid injections fail because it uses an innovative technique.
The genicular arteries deliver blood to all the structures in your knee joint. As the cartilage degenerates, it triggers an overgrowth of the genicular arteries serving the synovial membrane.
During GAE, we block one or more of these abnormal vessels, which stops blood flow and reduces synovial inflammation.
GAE is an outpatient procedure using a local anesthetic and moderate sedation to help you relax. After applying the anesthetic to your upper thigh, we make a pinhole opening, allowing us to insert a catheter into the artery.
Then, we use real-time X-rays to see the blood vessels and gently guide the catheter to your knee. At the knee, we release a dye through the catheter to highlight the blood vessels, making it easier to see abnormal genicular arteries.
We guide the catheter into the targeted artery and then use the catheter to inject tiny particles into the vessel, blocking blood flow in the abnormal arteries.
Without blood, inflammatory substances can reach the synovium and your symptoms improve. The procedure typically takes 1 hour because we perform GAE on several vessels.
You go home the same day after your sedation wears off, but you must avoid exercising and heavy lifting for a .
Though your knee pain will improve, it takes a little time for the synovial inflammation to go down. You may feel the difference in several days, but it can take up to two weeks.
Most people with knee pain and limited mobility due to osteoarthritis qualify for GAE.
Our providers can talk to you to see if you qualify.
GAE may be a great option even if other treatments fail to give you enough symptom relief. You may also want to consider GAE if you can’t or don’t want to undergo knee replacement surgery.
The best way to learn if you qualify for GAE is to schedule an evaluation. Use online booking or call the nearest Centers for Pain Control and Vein Care to schedule an assessment today. We’re located in Hobart, LaPorte, Munster, Valparaiso, and Merrillville, Indiana.
