Following some knee surgery back in January, the doc has now suggested I have a course of 3 Synvisc injections to help with the stiffness and soreness in my knee. Although quite expensive, and not covered by my insurance, they are not always helpful apparently 50/50. I am still unsure about having the injections, although it would seem there are no negative side affects which is good to know. But I would appreciate any comments from anyone else who has had these types of injections and your experience with them, do they really help with the joint stiffness? Thanks… Cheers LA Rob
rcmioga is your man here…he has been tearing it up for a while with Synvisc injections…I’m sure he will chime in soon…
I had a series of SynVisc injections three years ago, prior to an Afghanistan deployment. Despite having what turned out to be a completely detached meniscus, the injections helped me to get through with only a minimum of problems. As a result, I have a good opinion of their potential effectiveness.
Hope that helps you.
VR,
I LOVE Synvisc. My situation is I have a perforated articular cartilage so I have bone on bone contact in my left knee–this is a secondary impact of a torn medial meniscus. Prior to Synvisc, I was unable to run without significant chronic pain and sometimes pretty impressive acute pain. My ortho told me it was time to stop Triathlons. I told him that this was not the right answer. he explained all the other options and I chose Synvisc. At that time (about 3 years ago, synvisc was mostly used in the shoulder capsule–i was one of the first to get it for the knee).
I’ve now had 7 cycles of syn-Visc…I find it works best to be repeated every 3-4 months. The cycles are 3 injections over 15 days. By the 20th day after the start I began to notice significant improvements and about 30 days after the first injection I am able to run more or less pain free. If I wait 6 months between cycles the pain becomes prohibitive.
since I started the treatments I’ve completed 2 IMs/6 H-IMs and many other shorter tris and running races. I’m able to run comfortably in the 30-40 mpw range.
I’m not sure if I’m doing any long term damage by continuing to do LC triathlons but my knee is pretty much a goner anyways. I’m 50 and have a reasonable shot at Hawaii. I probably could not even run 10 miles without Synvisc. The stuff definately works. and my insurance covers it!
I completely agree with RCMIOGA in that I probably wouldn’t be running now if it weren’t for getting Synvisc injections. Not sure though, if he was one of the first to start getting it three years ago, what does that make me, my first round of knee injections with Synvisc was in 2001.
Thanks guys for the posts, I really appreciate the feed back, and it is good to hear the actual results from fellow triathletes like myself, gives me some hope of returning to running and racing once again. I figure with all the $$ I have spent so far this year on my surgery and P/T this will be a small price to pay to perhaps get some relief from the pain and stiffness in my knee. It was disappointing though to find out my Blue Cross PPO wouldn’t pick up any portion of the cost when I hear some other insurance companies do.
It is great to know you guys got good results by using the Synvisc and are able to get out there running again. Cheers LA Rob
Well I stand corrected! Just going by what my ortho told me…
well synvisc is partially made from chicken fat, actually the rooster’s comb from what I have been told, and I got that first set of injections done when I was living in Alabama. I think maybe those Alabama doctors were doing more stuff with chickens then the rest of the world at that time (no insult intended to AL doctors). 
I am starting my injections Friday so I hope to report back soon with some good results. Thanks to you all for sharing your info.
Good luck to you, I am in the process of getting my Blue Cross insurance to help pay for them with the request of my doctor, so hopefully that will be sorted in the next few days so I can try them out myself, it would seem that there is positive results from it, at this stage I will give anything a shot to help out my knee to get back to running and racing. Cheers LA Rob
I had 3 injections in winter 2007. Chrondomalacia on the back of my patella. I went from unable to run more than a few 100 yards to a 5k PR in 2 months after the injections. I still run a lot less mileage than I used to, but so far so good and with better (smarter?) training I’m not getting slower.
There are good studies showing that Hyaluronic Acid (synvisc is one type, there are 5 sold in the US), does help with knee pain from mild to moderate ARTHRITIS. This means knee’s that have lost cartilage. They dont work as well for other knee problems such as a meniscal tear. There are studies going on now to see how long the pain relief last but most people report about 6 months. Of the types available in the US, I believe synvisc is the worst. It has by far the highest complication rate, because a fair number of people develop an allergic reaction and there knee’s become very painful and swollen. Euflexxa, Supartz, Orthovisc are all better choices in my opinion. But in terms of efficacy they probably all work about the same.