Question

I've heard that injecting Hylan into the knee can stop the pain and help me move better. Is that the best treatment for me? I'm 60 and a bit heavy, but I try to keep active.

Answer

Losing some weight and increasing your activity is probably the best approach for you at present. But if your doctor has suggested a series of injections into the knee, here's what you can expect.

Hylan, or Synvisc® (hyaluronan, a shock-absorbing fluid found in joint cavities) needs to be injected once a week for 3 weeks. It's likely that you will be improved, and this will persist for several months - up to 6 months is claimed by some experts.

But you should know that a single injection into the joint of a steroid, betamethasone, can produce the same results. Both the steroid and Hylan have been shown in clinical studies to be better than a dummy injection ('placebo'), but the results are not miraculous, by any means. Talk again to your doctor - it may be that exercise and diet, with judicious use of pain-killers, can produce considerable improvement.