[{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/share-dev.upmc.com\/2025\/06\/myra-story-gae\/#Article","mainEntityOfPage":"https:\/\/share-dev.upmc.com\/2025\/06\/myra-story-gae\/","headline":"Myra\u2019s Story: GAE for Hemarthrosis","name":"Myra\u2019s Story: GAE for Hemarthrosis","description":"

Hemarthrosis caused Myra, 82, severe knee pain and swelling. UPMC's Anish Ghodadra, MD, performed genicular artery embolization (GAE) to help her.<\/p>","datePublished":"2025-06-12","dateModified":"2025-08-07","author":{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.upmc.com\/services\/orthopaedics-regions","name":"UPMC Orthopaedic Care","url":"https:\/\/www.upmc.com\/services\/orthopaedics-regions","sameAs":"https:\/\/share-dev.upmc.com\/orthopaedic-surgery\/","parentOrganization":"UPMC"},"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"UPMC HealthBeat","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/share-dev.upmc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/UPMC-HealthBeat-Logo.png","url":"https:\/\/share-dev.upmc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/UPMC-HealthBeat-Logo.png","width":600,"height":60}},"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/share-dev.upmc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/GettyImages-1166350052-e1749239964434.jpg","url":"https:\/\/share-dev.upmc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/GettyImages-1166350052-e1749239964434.jpg","height":866,"width":2000},"url":"https:\/\/share-dev.upmc.com\/2025\/06\/myra-story-gae\/","about":["Health Topics A-Z","Orthopaedics"],"wordCount":1440,"articleBody":"Myra Amodie is an active 82-year-old who swims six days a week, walks frequently, and is an avid gardener.However, severe knee pain and swelling from a condition called hemarthrosis were keeping Myra from doing what she loved.Searching for relief, she found Anish Ghodadra, MD, an interventional radiologist at UPMC. Dr. Ghodadra performed two genicular artery embolization (GAE) procedures to block the bleeding into Myra’s knee joint.Today, Myra is pain-free and back to doing what she loves.\u201cHe is remarkable,\u201d Myra says of Dr. Ghodadra. \u201cI don\u2019t know how old his parents are, but he recognized me as a person and not as an 82-year-old woman.\u201cI appreciated that so much because I am able to do a lot. I can\u2019t do the things I did when I was 50, but I can do a lot. And I am grateful \u2014 beyond grateful \u2014 for him.\u201d\u2018Excruciating\u2019 PainMyra, a former high school science teacher, underwent joint replacement surgery on her right knee in July 2019. In April 2021, she experienced her first episode of severe pain and swelling in the knee.\u201cThe pain was beyond a 10, and I\u2019m not one to complain much,\u201d says Myra, of Peters Township, Pa. \u201cMy whole body would shake. It was something I could not control. The pain was excruciating.\u201dMyra’s doctors prescribed pain medication and told her to stay off her leg, which worked temporarily. But in 2024, she began taking a blood thinner medication and had two more episodes in two months.Myra had hemarthrosis, a condition that involves bleeding into the knee joint.When someone has knee arthritis, abnormal blood vessels develop in the lining of the knee joint. These abnormal blood vessels can remain even after a knee replacement and can have recurrent bleeding episodes. Because Myra was taking blood thinners, she was at greater risk for these bleeding episodes.\u201cThink of the knee looking like a giant balloon \u2014 really swelling up,\u201d says Leigh Ann Gorman, Myra’s daughter. \u201cEven when the pain started to abate, it would take days for the swelling to go down. And it would be really stiff. She could hardly walk. She had to use the walker, which she isn’t a big fan of.\u201dMyra visited the surgeon who had performed her knee replacement surgery. He gave her a brace and a knee sleeve but told her he couldn’t do anything more for her.That was difficult for Myra to hear, especially because her condition was causing a mental and physical burden. She would avoid activities because she worried about having another episode.\u201cI always had a fear that it was going to happen again, and that fear took its toll,\u201d she says. \u201cYou think, \u2018Well, maybe I\u2019d better not walk on the trail because I\u2019m afraid if it happens on the trail, I won\u2019t be able to get help.\u2019 It was an emotional drain.\u201dMyra had been the primary caregiver for her husband, who died of Parkinson’s disease in 2023. Seeing their mother’s medical setback was hard for Leigh Ann and her sister, Laura.\u201cI think my sister and I were both like, \u2018OK, no,\u2019\u201d Leigh Ann says. \u201cWe just watched her go through some really, really challenging years, and I think we were both very determined to make sure that we got her the treatment.\u201dFinding the Right CareLaura, a doctor in Maryland, contacted an orthopaedic colleague in Arizona. The colleague, in turn, connected her with Kenneth Urish, MD, a reconstructive orthopaedic surgeon at UPMC.Myra and Leigh Ann met with Dr. Urish in July 2024. Dr. Urish told Myra he didn’t have a solution, but he referred her to Dr. Ghodadra.\u201c(Dr. Urish) said, \u2018You know, I understand how bad this is. And I can\u2019t help you out, but we have this interventional radiologist doing this treatment, and I think you should go see him,\u2019\u201d Leigh Ann says.Later that week, Myra and Leigh Ann met Dr. Ghodadra.\u201cOne of the things that struck me the most when I first met Myra was here’s somebody who wants to be active, who’s full of life and has been unable to do what she’s wanted to do because of the issue she was having with her knee,\u201d Dr. Ghodadra says.\u201cShe was pretty upset, pretty frustrated with her lack of quality of life and just how debilitating this knee pain was.\u201dDr. Ghodadra told Myra he had a potential solution with GAE. This minimally invasive procedure involves threading a catheter into the abnormal blood vessels and injecting tiny particles to plug them.\u201cThe idea behind the GAE is, if those blood vessels that shouldn’t be there are causing these issues, then why don’t we take care of those blood vessels?\u201d Dr. Ghodadra says.Embolization \u2014 blocking blood flow \u2014 has treated many conditions for many years, but GAE for the knee only emerged within the past decade.Myra says she \u201calmost cried\u201d when Dr. Ghodadra told her about the GAE procedure.\u201cI said, \u2018Thank you. Do it. I\u2019m very willing to try anything because I\u2019m so afraid of this happening again,\u2019\u201d Myra says. \u201cI\u2019ve always been an active person, and to think that all of a sudden, my life was gone? That\u2019s how I felt. I felt, I can\u2019t live like this \u2014 with this fear \u2014 and I don\u2019t want to go through the pain again.\u201dA Pair of ProceduresDr. Ghodadra performed a GAE procedure on Myra in July 2024. A few months later, she had another episode of swelling and pain, although it was less severe than before.\u201cIn about 40% of patients, the blood vessels are robust enough and the connections in between the blood vessels are large enough that they actually require a second embolization,\u201d Dr. Ghodadra says.\u201cThey may do well after the first embolization for a period of time \u2014 a couple weeks, a couple months \u2014 but about four out of 10 patients do have a repeat episode of bleeding after that first embolization and require that second embolization.\u201dMyra had her second GAE procedure in November 2024. Because the procedure doesn’t require full anesthesia, Myra remembers staying awake and asking Dr. Ghodadra questions throughout the procedure.\u201cI was very interested in the screens and exactly what was going on,\u201d Myra says. \u201cI absolutely was fascinated by the technology he was using. That\u2019s amazing what they can do today.\u201dA week after the procedure, Myra and her family celebrated Thanksgiving in Hilton Head, S.C.\u201cShe\u2019s walking on the beach, and I\u2019m watching her do all these things that I wasn\u2019t sure she was going to be able to do again,\u201d Leigh Ann says.Back to LivingNow, several months after her second GAE procedure, Myra is living life the way she wants to. She’s back to swimming, walking, and spending time with her family, including her four grandchildren.Best of all, \u201cI don’t have that fear,\u201d Myra says. \u201cI am over that fear that it\u2019s going to happen again.\u201dLeigh Ann is thankful to Dr. Ghodadra for looking beyond Myra’s age and doing everything he could to help her.\u201cThere\u2019s a truth to a lot of doctors seeing an 82-year-old patient and saying, \u2018There\u2019s maybe not a lot we can do, and these things happen a lot in our 80s,\u2019\u201d Leigh Ann says. \u201dAnd he treated her like a 30-year-old patient \u2014 like, \u2018Let\u2019s get you back in the pool, let\u2019s get you walking your dog.\u2019\u201cHe valued her life. He valued that she still had years ahead of her. That optimism and excitement \u2014 we were so grateful.\u201dMyra says she’s spread the word about GAE to other doctors to help patients like her.\u201cI am sure there are many, many patients like me who need help and don’t know where to go,\u201d she says.Dr. Ghodadra says GAE has the potential to help many patients with hemarthrosis. It could even treat osteoarthritis, potentially delaying the need for a knee replacement.\u201cIn interventional radiology, we treat everything from cancer patients to patients who have life-threatening blood clots,\u201d he says. \u201cBut the most number of times I have heard from patients, \u2018Hey, Doc, you saved my life,\u2019 has come from these patients.\u201cPain is truly life-altering. We often take the ability to move around for granted, and these patients who have pain, just getting through the day is a constant, painful battle. To be able to give the ability to move back to folks, it’s been very exciting and humbling.\u201dSources"},{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"2025","item":"https:\/\/share-dev.upmc.com\/2025\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"06","item":"https:\/\/share-dev.upmc.com\/2025\/\/06\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Myra\u2019s Story: GAE for Hemarthrosis","item":"https:\/\/share-dev.upmc.com\/2025\/06\/myra-story-gae\/#breadcrumbitem"}]}]