Prognosis of Baker’s Cyst Most of the times, the cyst is small and therefore resolve son its own. You may need to take care of the activities you do and massage the area around cyst to relieve pain. However, without surgery and steroid injections it goes away on its own. Sometimes, the cyst is big and painful which requires needle aspiration or arthroscopy. The recovery period for needle aspiration and arthroscopy is few weeks and 2-3 months respectively. The recurrence rate is negligible.