This emerging treatment could help people avoid knee replacement surgery

The procedure was "remarkably" successful.

That is how 74-year-old Cynthia Schraf-Fletcher describes genicular artery embolization (GAE), a minimally invasive treatment designed to reduce chronic knee pain. Nearly a year after having the outpatient procedure on her right knee, she says the result feels almost the same as the total knee replacement she previously underwent on her left knee.

"I couldn't be more pleased," says Schraf-Fletcher, who turned to Leigh Casadaban, MD, MS, assistant professor of radiology at the University of Colorado Anschutz School of Medicine, for the treatment.

She says everyday activities that once came with substantial discomfort are now much easier. Gardening, riding a stationary bicycle, and enjoying other favorite activities all involve far less pain.

A New Option Between Injections and Knee Replacement