Osteoarthritis is a progressive disease; over time the cartilage within the knee degenerates, causing inflammation and pain within the knee joint. In its early stages, doctors recommend “conservative” treatment, such as pain medications and physical therapy. As pain worsens, corticosteroid injections may be used to control the pain.
When the cartilage is nearly gone, total knee replacement surgery may be the only option to treat osteoarthritis pain and restore movement and range of motion to the knee. Unfortunately, two-thirds of those who qualify for total knee replacement surgery are unwilling to have it, possibly due to age or the necessity of a long and sometimes painful recovery. What’s more, 20% of patients who undergo total knee replacement surgery report dissatisfaction with the procedure.1
But there is another option, and one that should be exercised while the knee cartilage is still mostly intact.
Research has shown that osteoarthritis is a much more complex disease than previously thought. It is now known that abnormal blood vessels will develop within an osteoarthritic knee, which are responsible for unusually high blood flow to the joint and the release of inflammatory mediators that accelerate cartilage destruction.
The GAE procedure targets these abnormal blood vessels and embolizes or “blocks” the flow of blood to the joint, reducing blood flow to normal levels. The effect is a significant decrease in inflammation and pain. A clinical study in 2021 demonstrated that within the first week after the GAE procedure, average pain scores decreased from 8 out of 10 to 3 out of 10.2
GAE requires no general anesthesia and no hospital stay. It is an outpatient procedure, results in no pain or scarring, and you can resume most normal activities immediately after the procedure.