Anyone had Hyaluronic acid injection in knee?

[deuxgarcons]

I have osteoarthritis in knee and have been recommended a hyaluronic injection. Has anyone had this and did it help with knee pain? Were you able to take up sport again?

I have and it's bloody brilliant, it's made a massive difference - I was due to consider knee replacement surgery thanks to my longstanding arthritis in my knee, but having the injection of HLA made such a difference that I'm almost pain free for about 6-8 months post injection. I was able to get back to running and cycling and didn't need as many painkillers.
Apparently, if it works it's brilliant, but it doesn't work for everyone

Yes, I had it done. I'm not sure how much it helped but it did seem to stave off the total knee replacement for a while. In the end I had the knee replaced about 6 years ago and I haven't looked back. It took a few months to get back to normal but no regrets at all.

Just reread the whole post. I don't think the injections made enough of a difference to go back to sport but I was cycling in the Alps about 3 months after the replacement. Are you having to pay for the injections or will it be on the NHS? If NHS then it's worth trying as it's not particularly painful or invasive so you have little to loose by trying it.

Thanks all for your comments, very helpful. It's not on NHS but willing to try as I am desperate to ski again although being realistic so nothing too challenging. They did say that exercise that builds strength of muscle in thighs will also help and skiing definitely does that! They said it can take a few weeks for the injection to have full affects. Did you find that?

for me it took about 2 months to fully settle in, that was in line with what my consultant said as well

Not offered on the NHS (or at least shouldn't have been) since 2004.

NICE guideline CG177

www.nice.org.uk/guidance/cg177/chapter/1-Recommendations

Not sure how the improvement that some individuals experience is explained, but the evidence is strong enough that they don't work, that there's a 'DO NOT' guideline for hyaluronic acid.