How often do you remember about the joints and bones? Being one of the crucial elements of the human body, responsible for the comfort of our movements, they receive so little care and love from us, except for the cases when we start feeling discomfort or pain. And this is a really bad signal, sometimes, meaning you have one of the orthopedics conditions like osteoarthritis. But if you have been diagnosed with this disease, what should you do? How to get rid of the knee pain and live a full and active life? Fortunately, modern medicine offers various treatments and therapies to help people with arthritis. Orthopedics injections with hyaluronic acid are one of the most effective and fast ways to relieve pain. In this article, we will compare Synvisc and Synvisc One (I) to help you understand the similarities and differences between the two remedies when choosing an injectable gel for yourself or your close ones. Let’s get started.
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Synvisc and Synvisc I are orthopedic products from the Sanofi Genzyme manufacturer approved by the USA Food and Drug Administration to be used for knee pain relief caused by osteoarthritis in 2009. As they are produced by the same company, their formulations are very close.
Actually, both Synvisc and Synvisc One are injectable sterile, pyrogen-free, viscoelastic fluids. The base for these gels is hyaluronase or more known as hyaluronic acid. This acid is a natural substance found in many tissues of the human organism, including the joint fluid. In the joint, it acts as grease, decreasing the friction between the bones and cartilages during movement.
When the joint is affected by osteoarthritis, cartilage protecting articular edges of bones gradually collapses, the joint fluid loses shock-absorbing properties, and the bones start rubbing against each other. This is how and why pain occurs in the joint.
The injections either of Synvisc or Synvisc I replenish the lacking hyaluronic acid in the joint fluid, preventing the bone from rubbing. The difference between the 2 medications lies in the fact that you can achieve pain relief in the knee with a single injection of Synvisc One, while you will need a course of 3 injections if you choose Synvisc.
So how do you know you may need treatment with Synvisc or Synvisc I? These remedies were developed for patients with osteoarthritis of the knee joint who continue experiencing knee joint pain even despite appropriate diet, exercising, and prescribed treatment of osteoarthritis.
If you have already tried out all these therapies and still feel pain in the joint, inform your doctor and consider taking Synvisc or Synvisc One injections for knee osteoarthritis.
Both remedies are liquid and viscous fluid gels that are administered directly into the joint with the help of a syringe and a fine needle.
Being a natural part of so many tissues in the human organism, hyaluronic acid does not cause allergy or body rejection. However, like all medications, Synvisc and Synvisc One injections can cause certain reactions. Here is the list of the most common side effects reported by the patients who have had orthopedic injections either with Synvisc or Synvisc One:
The manifestations of these side effects are temporary and disappear within the next 2-3 days after the injection. In case you notice any severe reactions like back pain, severe headache, increased heartbeat, or allergic reactions at the site of injection, immediately inform your doctor.
You may not believe it, but the procedure with Synvisc or Synvisc One is perhaps the fastest way to treat knee osteoarthritis. But saying “treating” here, we mean relieving its symptoms like pain in the joints as currently there are no known ways to treat many orthopedics diseases, and osteoarthritis is one of them.
So, the procedure either with Synvisc or Synvisc I will start with a previous consultation, studying the medical history, indications, and possible medical conditions that may become contraindications for the treatment with any of these medications. It will not take you more than 30 minutes.
To make the process more comfortable for you, the doctor will apply some local anesthetics like numbing cream over your knee to cease the painful feelings. After that, he/she will administer the gel directly into the joint with the help of a fine needle. This is actually it.
The difference between Synvisc and Synvisc One here is that you will need only one treatment with the second preparation, while for achieving certain results with Synvisc, you will have to visit the therapist three times with the intervals in a week. So, you will need 3 injections of Synvisc and just one injection of Synvisc I to relieve the pain of arthritis in the knee.
In the first few days directly after the treatment, you may not feel any specific difference. There may appear slight side effects, which were described above, and to make sure you help your organism tolerate the procedure and the newly-injected preparation, we recommend you limit your physical activity (not all, just those activities that load the knee like walking, running, lifting heavy weights, etc.), for the next 48 hours. As for everything else, you can resume your daily activity and enjoy life.
The action of both remedies will last for approximately 6 months.
So, we have described two treatments to relieve the pain in the joint of the knee. They are produced by the same manufacturer, based on the same active substance – hyaluronic acid, have the same form of release, cause approximately the same side effects. So, what should you choose between the 2 of them? Many patients would say they prefer Synvisc One as you need only 1 injection of this medication, while you need 3 shots of Synvisc. And they will be right. Basically, Synvisc One is a more advanced version of its ancestor Synvisc with a more concentrated formula of the gel. However, there are certain nuances here as not for all cases, such a concentrated dose of hyaluronic acid is safe to administer at once. That is why you need to consult with your doctor to choose the remedy that will work the best in your particular case.
