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Knee pain Can stop you in your footsteps, but a new minimally invasive treatment gives patients reasons to jump for joy. Performed in less than two hours under light sedation, this new approach could relieve chronic knee pain caused by osteoarthritis and delay more invasive knee replacement surgery, nyu langone health health health study shows.

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Knee replacement surgery becomes more and more common.

Each year, nearly 900,000 Americans undergo knee replacement surgery, and this number should increase as the population ages, according to Cleveland clinic . The procedure consists in replacing all or part of a damaged knee articulation of a patient with an artificial metal and plastic seal.

Osteoarthritis is one of the most common conditions requiring knee replacement surgery, which affects 32 million Americans , or around 10% of the adult population of the United States, although anyone can develop osteoarthritis over time, overweight people, put prolonged stress on the joints or who have undergone passed knee injuries are most at risk.

"Knee osteoarthritis occurs when the cartilage of your knee Decomposes, causing the friction of bones, "said the Cleveland clinic later." This friction causes pain and swelling in your knee, causing stiffness. »»

But a new potential treatment is much less invasive.

In this last advancement, announced on August 12 in the Journal of Vascular Interventional Radiology Scientists were able to limit the symptoms of osteoarthritis by reducing inflammation. They did so by providing chemical balls through a plastic tube guided by the image, thus blocking the blood flow to arteries selected towards the knee - a procedure known as embolization of the genicular artery.

"As they decompose gradually, the knee joints in people with osteoarthritis are known to be ignited, which triggers the growth of small blood vessels (angiogenesis) and an increase in blood flow to the joints," explains the authors of the study.

The results were impressive. More than 60% of the total subjects - a group of 25 men and women aged 50 to 78 - have experienced significant improvements in their level of pain a year after the procedure.

"Our study shows that the embolization of the genicular artery is a safe and effective treatment and mini-invasive for those suffering from moderate to severe symptomatic pain related to osteoarthritis," said the study co-investigator and an interventional radiologist Ryan Hickey , MD, via press release .

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Treatment could also offer other advantages.

"This work also proves that the embolization of the genicular artery offers more than just pain relief and could change the process of diseases itself," added Hickey, referring to several important changes in the body that researchers observed a year after surgery.

One of them was a 12% drop in the quantity of a protein called VEGF in the blood. This protein helps the body to develop new blood vessels, and previous studies have shown that it can also be linked to changes in the knee caused by osteoarthritis.

Although researchers have also used surveys to assess pain, stiffness and patient functionality, patients, Bedros Taslakien , MD, MA, principal researcher of the study and principal author, noted that monitoring VEGF levels after the procedure could serve as a biomarker to assess the success of surgery.

Another protein called IL-1RA also dropped by around 15%, helping to reduce inflammation in the body.

"Our study results also indicate that the embolization of the genicular arteries can, if other larger clinical trials are successful, slow down the progression of osteoarthritis by observing significant decreases of signaling proteins, in particular a year after the endothelial growth procedure and Taslakian.

In the end, this intervention could help to avoid a complete replacement of the knee in those with moderate to severe osteoarthritis which did not respond to first line therapies, such as Corticosteroid injections , fluid aspiration and physiotherapy.

"This procedure is particularly suitable for patients who are not yet ready for knee replacement surgery or for whom surgery is not an option due to age or other risk factors, such as obesity, uncontrolled diabetes or heart disease, or smoking," said Hickey.

Other useful interventions include maintaining healthy weight, changing the way you work, focusing on flexibility and strengthening the muscles surrounding the knee.