Cortisone Injections and weakened tendons?

[wanker]

Hello to all.
I am a pre-med student and runner who has been battling a strain somewhere in the hip flexor region since early january. I have been through 11 weeks of PT, and I have been on Diclofenac (150mgs/day) and Ibuprofen (up to 1800mgs/day, although not at the same time as the diclofenac). I also had about 4 weeks with no running at all, although now I do run about 25 min/day very slowly with minimal pain ( a substantial step down from the hour plus i used to run) My hip flexor, however, is still hurting as much as it did 12 weeks ago. I was considering asking my physician about a cortisone shot, but I was reading up on them and saw that they can possibly weaken tendons and /or bone tendon junctions.

I was wondering if anyone here had read any literature or even done any research firsthand as to how this affects people long term (i.e. - does the tendon return to its original strenth after a while, or is this effect permanent?)

Any insight would be helpful
Thanks

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[SOUNDMAN]

The pain you experience is there a "snapping" or "popping" sensation with it? Is the pain groin pain in nature? Sometimes what you are describing sounds like a snapping hip problem where the iliopsoas snaps over the lesser trochanter as you move from flexion to extension. Plus there are 2 other variations of snapping hip syndrome as well. This could be wrong of course. I've seen cortisone used in 2 ways, one to try to relieve the pain and reduce the inflammation in an area/join, but secondly with the anesthetic portion of the shot (mixed with the cortisone) if you get immediate relief you know the shot was placed in the correct position, thus yielding a diagnostic component to the cortisone injection.

However one would really need to evaluate you to determine what exactly is going on. Cortisone injections are injected into tendon sheaths all the time, they are not normally usually injected directly into tendons.

 

[DrGarfield]

Yes, there are reports about cortisone tendons being injected in the Tendo Achilles and they report that the incidence of rupture is higher after that!!

The exact way how the cortisone may cause the rupture is not known to me- but I think it is the result of the degenerating tendon being overused due to the blocking of the natural Alarm system of pain and inflammation by the cortisone use!

In my opinion, you do not need a cortisone shot in the hip flexors- most propably you suffer from the snapping hip syndrome or something else- and cortisone wont work for that- it is worthwhile to get just a local analgesic injection first to find out wheather a cortisone injection is gonna help!

All the best!