TREATMENT OF SHOULDER ARTHRITIS AND OTHER AREAS OF ARTHRITIS AND TENDONITIS

There are many similarities between the knee and the shoulder when treating arthritis of these joints. The main difference in the shoulder is that the local anesthesia blocks are different, and the shoulder also contains the rotator cuff, which must be addressed. The concept of bone injection versus joint injection remains the same for both joints. You can review the section on “Treatment of Knee Arthritis” to understand many of these concepts.

Treatment

Treatment can be for any joint. We treat arthritis of the elbow, wrist, thumb (very common), fingers, SI joint (but not the back or neck), hip, knee, ankle and subtalar joint, and other joints in the foot. Each joint is addressed individually with different blocks and injection techniques.

We often use a mixture of PRP and HA even in the small joints, although we may use just PRP. All joints are fundamentally the same. They all histologically have the same microscopic structure but have differing anatomy.

We also treat tendonitis in many areas. Usually, this is with a formulation of PRP. Typical treatment areas include tendonitis of the rotator cuff, biceps, elbow, hip, knee, and Achilles tendon.