Studies have shown that intra-articular corticosteroid injections can provide pain relief for patients with knee osteoarthritis, but how long does the pain last? Knee osteoarthritis is a chronic condition that desperately needs a long-term solution. Corticosteroids do provide a short-term solution to pain, but are not recommended for regular use. Dr. Hepper and others at the Department of Orthopedics at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri, USA, who did a systematic review of intra-articular corticosteroid injections in patients with arthritis. The purpose was to look at the efficacy of corticosteroid injections for pain relief in patients with arthritis and their duration of pain relief, and the choice of which corticosteroid was better for pain relief. They reviewed a large body of literature and found five papers comparing joint injections of corticosteroids with placebo and four papers comparing pain relief with different types of corticosteroid injections. The results showed that for pain relief corticosteroids were significantly better than placebo and that there was a significant difference in pain relief in the first week. Two of the four papers showed that triamcinolone drugs were more effective than other corticosteroids in relieving pain. CONCLUSION: Intra-articular corticosteroid injections reduce pain in patients with arthritis and last for at least 1 week, but intra-articular corticosteroid injections are only a short-term treatment.