Choosing GAE Knee Procedure Over Surgery

This article was medically authored by Dr. Ryan Armstrong and last reviewed for accuracy on 07/16/2026.

As you age, your knees experience the stress of years of movement, becoming subject to wear and tear. In other words, the older you are, the more likely it is that you've sustained damage to your cartilage (the smooth tissue located between your bones.) This allows osteoarthritis—a progressive condition that has no cure—to attack your knees, leading to pain, stiffness and mobility limits.

Now, this kind of wear and tear is not exclusive to older adults—in fact, it can affect you at any age, especially if you are an athlete like Eli Artemakis, a young ultimate frisbee player whose debilitating knee pain was leaving him considering invasive procedures such as surgery on his quest to find relief.

Once, knee surgery was the only way to relieve osteoarthritis-related knee pain. Today, however, patients can find relief without undergoing knee replacement surgery.

How can you treat osteoarthritis of the knee without surgery? After exhausting options like over-the-counter medications, patients can now find relief from the GAE knee procedure offered at Texas Endovascular. Better known as genicular artery embolization (GAE), this procedure relieves more than just the pain of osteoarthritis—in fact, Artemakis underwent GAE to relieve pain that was caused by a condition known as ‘jumper’s knee.’

Want to avoid surgery and put knee pain behind you? Here’s what you need to know about choosing the minimally invasive GAE knee procedure instead of surgery.

Key Takeaways

• Ideal GAE candidates are those who wish to delay or avoid knee replacement surgery, but can’t find knee pain relief from non-invasive treatment options
• Osteoarthritis sufferers experience knee pain due to inflammation in the joint lining, called the synovium
• The GAE knee procedure reduces inflammation to relieve knee pain, improve mobility and slow arthritis progression

Understanding the GAE Knee Procedure

Instead of targeting your cartilage, like older arthritis treatments, GAE addresses inflammation surrounding your knee joint.

But how does it fight inflammation? Well, the knees are lined by synovium, a kind of connective tissue that receives its blood supply from six genicular arteries. As such, we can reduce inflammation in the synovium by reducing blood flow to the inflamed tissue—via the GAE procedure. Put simply, our interventional radiologists use guided 3D imaging to find inflamed areas of the synovium. Then, using a small access point, they insert a small catheter into the artery, guiding it to spots of inflammation in the synovium. Next, they inject small particles into the artery to reduce arterial blood flow, in turn reducing inflammation and providing effective pain relief. Many patients who treat knee osteoarthritis with GAE are also able to improve mobility and slow disease progression.

Plus, when you choose the GAE knee procedure over surgery, you can avoid an overnight hospital stay as well as general anesthesia. While you will have to reduce activity levels for several days following your procedure, the recovery is easier than post-surgical recoveries. In fact, most patients resume normal activity levels just days after undergoing genicular artery embolization.

Choosing GAE: Additional Benefits

GAE recovery does not usually leave patients requiring serious pain medications. However, it is not a cure for osteoarthritis, as it does not restore or repair knee cartilage. Instead, it may delay osteoarthritis progression while providing effective pain relief and improving mobility. As such, this procedure helps many patients delay or avoid knee replacement surgery entirely.

Ready to see if genicular artery embolization is your ideal alternative to knee replacement surgery? Reach out to our team to request a consultation . When you come in to one of our seven locations in the greater Houston and Dallas regions, we will determine if you're a candidate for GAE.