Today, cortisone use is restricted and not often needed.

Publication: South Florida Sun-Sentinel (via Knight-Ridder/Tribune News Service)

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COPYRIGHT 2001 South Florida Sun-Sentinal

Byline: Andrea Szulszteyn

"My last year there, we may have injected five people total compared to that many a week."

AL GREEN

Former Kentucky athletic trainer

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Al Green remembers exactly how "cortisone Thursdays" worked while he was the athletic trainer at the University of Kentucky 20 years ago.

Players lined up for a weekly injection of cortisone to help kill the pain of nagging injuries. Back then it was common practice.

Today, that would never happen, not after tremendous technological advances in medicine and the discovery of serious side effects from repeated cortisone injections.

Cortisone is a powerful anti-inflammatory, and when used properly, it can reduce swelling in joints. But overuse can lead to damaged tendons and joints and sometimes avascular necrosis, which causes...

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