Alternatives to Total Knee Replacement

Your primary care doctor or orthopedist may tell you that you need a knee replacement if you’re living with constant pain. Even your friends may advise you to go under the knife. But there’s good chance you can avoid total knee replacement with an advanced treatment called genicular artery embolization, also known as GAE. In Brooklyn or the Bronx, you can get an exceptional GAE procedure from Dr. George Bolotin and his team at the Astra Knee Pain Center. Call today for an initial exam to find out if you qualify for this non-surgical procedure.

What Are the Best Methods to Relieve Knee Pain Without Extensive Surgery?

While many conditions, such as fractures and other injuries, sometimes require knee replacement surgery, you can avoid total knee replacement if you’ve been diagnosed with arthritis.

Astra Knee Pain Center offering a variety of effective treatments, such as:

• PRP and stem cell therapies
• Physical therapy
• TENS
• Steroid injections
• Genicular artery embolization (GAE)

With offices in Brooklyn and the Bronx, Dr. George Bolotin at the Astra Knee Pain Center, provides advanced procedures that save you from going under the knife. You can avoid total knee replacement, alleviating your pain and restoring the function in your knee, all without surgery.

What Conditions Are Treatable by GAE?

Genicular artery embolization is particularly helpful if you continue to have pain following a total knee replacement. Alternatively, GAE can be useful in place of surgery. 

Your GAE specialists in the Bronx specializes in genicular artery embolization for osteoarthritis of the knee, and other knee conditions, including:

• Knee bursitis
• Post-traumatic knee arthritis
• Chronic inflammatory knee pain
• Failed conservative treatment
• Aging and degeneration

Non-surgical treatments like GAE are among the most promising options when you want to avoid total knee replacement. After an exam and a review of your symptoms, your doctor tells you if you qualify for the minimally invasive treatment.

Why Choose GAE Over Other Injection-Based Treatments?

When your knee pain doctor determines you’re a good candidate for GAE, you can reap the benefits of this out-patient procedure. GAE is an image-guided process that reduces blood flow to the inflamed lining of the knee, which subsequently reduces pain and swelling without damaging healthy tissue.

During treatment, a Brooklyn knee pain specialist uses a catheter to reach around the knee and injects tiny particles to selectively close the offending vessels, thereby decreasing inflammation and potentially achieving permanent pain relief.

Benefits of GAE include:

• Minimally invasive requiring no sutures or general anesthesia
• Completed in less than an hour
• Minimal downtime
• Long-term pain reduction
• More predictable pain reduction
• Lower chance of joint damage
• No frequent office visits for injections

Who’s a Good Candidate for Alternatives to Knee Replacement?

Genicular artery embolization works particularly well if you have bone-on-bone grinding or swelling and stiffness. Your Brooklyn and Bronx knee pain doctors may recommend GAE when injections are no longer helpful, but outright surgery isn’t required.

Dr. Bolotin offers GAE for a variety of conditions and causes of knee pain, from injury and overuse to instability and locking. 

Other symptoms that might make you a good candidate for an alternative to knee replacement include:

• Having moderate to severe osteoarthritis in your knee
• Living with daily pain, stiffness or swelling
• Desiring to avoid total knee replacement, general anesthesia and hospitalization
• Failing to heal with physical therapy and conservative care

Knee pain specialists in Brooklyn and the Bronx offer second opinions when you’ve been told that knee replacement was your only alternative. Contact the Astra Knee Pain Center to find out if GAE is the best alternative to knee replacement for you.

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