Accuracy of Intraarticular Injections: Blind vs. Image Guided Techniques—A Review of Literature

Abstract

Intra-articular injections are widely used for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes of joint pathologies throughout the body. These injections can be performed blind by utilizing anatomical landmarks or with the use of imaging modalities to directly visualize the joint space during injections. This review of the literature aims to comprehensively identify differences in the accuracy of intra-articular injections via palpation vs. image guidance in the most commonly injected joints in the upper and lower extremities. To our knowledge, there are no such comprehensive reviews available. A narrative literature review was performed using PubMed and Google Scholar databases to identify studies focusing on the accuracy of blind or image-guided intra-articular injections for each joint. A total of 75 articles was included in this review, with blind and image-guided strategies being discussed for the most commonly injected joints of the upper and lower extremities. Varying ranges of accuracy with blind and image-guided modalities were found throughout the literature, though an improvement in accuracy was seen in nearly all joints when using image guidance. Differences are pronounced, particularly in deep joints such as the hip or in the small joints such as those in the hand or foot. Image guidance is a useful adjunct for most intra-articular injections, if available. Though there is an increase in accuracy in nearly all joints, minor differences in accuracy seen in large, easily accessed joints, such as the knee, may not warrant image guidance.