This one is personal. Our co-founder, Dr. Osman Ahmed, MD, FSIR, FCIRSE, has been named the first author of the official Society of Interventional Radiology (SIR) position statement on Genicular Artery Embolization (GAE) for symptomatic knee osteoarthritis — published in the Journal of Vascular and Interventional Radiology (JVIR) in July 2026.
For those who have followed Dr. Ahmed’s career, this moment is not a surprise. It is the culmination of over a decade of pioneering work. Dr. Ahmed was among the first physicians in the world to perform Genicular Artery Embolization (GAE). He built the clinical evidence base for it, led the NIH-funded research evaluating it, and now has authored the document that formally establishes it as an endorsed treatment option from the nation’s leading interventional radiology society.
The full statement is available here: Society of Interventional Radiology Position Statement on Genicular Artery Embolization for Symptomatic Knee Osteoarthritis
What Is the SIR Position Statement?
A position statement from the Society of Interventional Radiology is a formally reviewed, societally endorsed document that synthesizes the current evidence base for a procedure and establishes the organization’s official stance on its use in clinical practice. This statement was reviewed and approved by both the SIR Executive Council and the SIR Pain Management Council, making it the definitive word from the interventional radiology community on GAE for knee osteoarthritis.
The statement covers the biologic rationale behind GAE, the clinical evidence supporting it, technical considerations for performing the procedure, its safety profile, and the evolving regulatory landscape in the United States and abroad. It is not a document written by outsiders evaluating a new idea. It was written by the people who built this field — and Dr. Ahmed is at the top of that list.
What the SIR Says About GAE
The position statement establishes five formal positions on GAE:
GAE is backed by meaningful clinical evidence. The SIR affirms that GAE is supported by a growing body of evidence demonstrating clinically meaningful reductions in pain and improvements in function in appropriately selected patients with symptomatic knee osteoarthritis.
GAE has a strong safety profile. The statement confirms that GAE has a favorable safety profile when performed by interventional specialists with formal training and advanced experience in microcatheter work and embolotherapies. Across more than 1,000 reported cases worldwide, the procedure has shown a low incidence of major adverse events, with no reported cases of permanent neurologic injury, septic arthritis, or osteonecrosis.
GAE should be offered to the right patients. The SIR states that GAE should be offered as a minimally invasive treatment option for patients with symptomatic knee osteoarthritis who have failed conservative therapy and who are either ineligible for, unwilling to undergo, or seeking to delay total knee arthroplasty (TKA). This positions GAE squarely within the treatment algorithm for a condition that affects tens of millions of Americans.
More high-quality evidence is on the way. The SIR acknowledges that ongoing randomized controlled trials aim to further define the long-term durability, optimal embolic selection, and comparative effectiveness of GAE, including its effect relative to placebo.
Multidisciplinary care is essential. The statement calls for GAE to be performed within multidisciplinary care pathways and reported using standardized outcome measures consistent with the SIR Research Reporting Standards — standards that Dr. Ahmed himself co-authored in 2024.
Why This Matters for Patients with Knee Osteoarthritis
Knee osteoarthritis is one of the most prevalent musculoskeletal conditions in the world, and it presents a significant clinical challenge. Many patients find that conservative treatments such as physical therapy, anti-inflammatory medications, and cortisone injections provide only limited or temporary relief. At the same time, a substantial portion of patients are not ready for, or not appropriate candidates for, total knee replacement surgery. Studies show that up to 30% of patients advised to undergo total knee arthroplasty ultimately decline the procedure, and up to 20% of those who do proceed remain dissatisfied with their postoperative outcomes.
GAE was developed to address exactly this gap. The procedure targets the underlying vascular and inflammatory mechanisms that drive pain in knee osteoarthritis. The joint lining in an arthritic knee develops abnormal new blood vessels, and pain-sensing nerve fibers grow alongside them into tissue that is normally free of nerves. GAE works by delivering tiny embolic particles through a thin catheter to selectively block these abnormal vessels, disrupting the inflammatory cycle and reducing pain signals while preserving normal joint blood flow.
The SIR’s formal endorsement means that patients and referring physicians now have the backing of the nation’s leading interventional radiology society when considering GAE as part of a knee osteoarthritis treatment plan.
Dr. Ahmed: A Pioneer of GAE from the Beginning
It is worth being direct about what Dr. Ahmed’s role in this field actually represents. He did not adopt GAE after it became established. He helped establish it.
Dr. Ahmed is among the first physicians in the world to have performed GAE, at a time when the procedure existed only in early feasibility literature and required exceptional technical skill and clinical judgment to execute. Over the years that followed, he built a body of peer-reviewed research that helped transform GAE from an experimental technique into a procedure now endorsed by the world’s leading interventional radiology society.
Dr. Ahmed led the 2021 SIR Research Consensus Panel on percutaneous management of osteoarthritis in the knee, which identified the key research gaps and priorities that shaped the field’s direction. He co-authored the 2024 SIR Research Reporting Standards for GAE, which established the standardized outcome measures that all GAE trials now use and that are explicitly referenced in the 2026 position statement. He is also the principal investigator of the SHAM-PAIN trial (NCT06859164), an NIH-funded, randomized, sham-controlled pilot study evaluating GAE at the University of Utah — one of the most rigorous trials currently underway for the procedure.
At Joint & Vascular Institute, Dr. Ahmed and our team are also conducting a prospective GAE registry (NCT07380906) at our Libertyville, Illinois clinic, tracking real-world patient outcomes using validated WOMAC score measures. The data generated here contributes directly to the evidence base that the broader field relies on.
The 2026 SIR position statement, with Dr. Ahmed as first author, is not a recognition of a single publication. It is the recognition of a career spent building a field from the ground up.
GAE at Joint & Vascular Institute
At Joint & Vascular Institute, GAE is not a procedure we recently added to our menu. It is a procedure our co-founder helped pioneer, and one we have been performing and studying for years. We serve patients from Libertyville, Rockford, and throughout northern Illinois, including the greater Chicago metropolitan area, who are seeking minimally invasive alternatives to knee surgery.
We accept major insurance plans, and all procedures are performed on an outpatient basis at our clinics. If you or someone you know has been living with knee pain from osteoarthritis and has not found adequate relief from conservative treatments, contact us to learn whether GAE may be appropriate.