From time to time our patients at Eastern Foot Care may require an extension of care for their chronic injury state. Tendinopathies, osteoarthritis and ligamentous sprains/instability can sometimes require more than the standard orthomechanical support, physical therapy and rehabilitation strategies typically used in the conservative phase of management by the Sports Podiatrists at Eastern Foot Care.

In these circumstances injection therapy may be called upon to aid recovery.

The podiatrists at Eastern Foot Care are able to offer a variety of different injection therapy protocols to address various musculoskeletal complaints, including:

• Myofascial and trigger point dry needling
  • The use of a fine-gauge acupuncture needle without any injectable fluid (hence the term “dry needling”) to relax hyper-excited tissue associated with many different pain processes and to stimulate a healing response
• Local anaesthesia for regional nerve blockade
  • This can be useful for procedural work, temporary anaesthesia whilst adjusting an oral analgesia/anti-inflammatory regime, and breaking up a pain cycle
• Local anaesthesia as a means of mechanical brisement
  • This approach has benefit in the management of nerve entrapments in various locations, and can be used in conjunction with certain techniques to stimulate a healing response in chronically injured tissue
• Prolotherapy and regenerative injection therapy
  • This treatment involves the use of local anaesthetic with glucose or similar sugar-based solutions to facilitate healing of chronic tendon and ligamentous injury. Some preparations also have an effect on nerve pain associated with tissue injury
• Corticosteroid injection
  • Cortisone preparations are powerful anti-inflammatory agents and can be beneficial in the management of chronic tendon and fascial injuries (particularly tenosynovitis), osteoarthritic joints, bursitis and nerve entrapments

We also have the ability to ensure accurate placement of injectable agents using our

state of the art real-time ultrasound unit

In some circumstances certain other injection therapies are warranted, including

• Autologous blood injections (ABI)
• Platelet rich plasma injections (PRP)
• Orthokine
• Synvisc

These are typically performed by an interventional sports radiologist. Whilst most radiology clinics are able to offer this service, the Eastern Foot Care Sports Podiatry team have formed close professional relationships with some of Melbourne’s leading sports radiologists and as such can advise you accordingly should this treatment be required.