Intra-articular local anaesthetic on the day after surgery improves pain and patient satisfaction after Unicompartmental Knee Replacement: A randomised controlled trial
Abstract Intra-operative local anaesthetic infiltration provides good early pain relief after Unicompartmental Knee Replacement (UKR). However, appreciable pain may occur on the day after surgery. The purpose of this double-blinded, prospective randomised controlled trial was to evaluate the effecti...
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Published in | The knee Vol. 19; no. 4; pp. 352 - 355 |
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Main Authors | , , , , , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
Netherlands
Elsevier B.V
01.08.2012
Elsevier Limited |
Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | Abstract Intra-operative local anaesthetic infiltration provides good early pain relief after Unicompartmental Knee Replacement (UKR). However, appreciable pain may occur on the day after surgery. The purpose of this double-blinded, prospective randomised controlled trial was to evaluate the effectiveness of a bolus of local intra-articular anaesthetic given early on the day after surgery. Forty-four patients were randomised to receive an intra-articular injection, via an epidural catheter inserted at operation, of either 20 ml 0.5% plain bupivacaine or 20 ml normal saline. All patients received a femoral nerve block with 20 ml prilocaine 1% and local anaesthetic infiltration by the surgeon. Patients injected with bupivacaine had significantly less (p < 0.001) pain than control patients immediately (mean pain score 1.82 v 6.1) and 6 hours (2.5 v 5.7) after injection. Patient satisfaction was also significantly greater (p < 0.001) in the local anaesthetic group. We conclude that a bolus dose of intra-articular bupivacaine early on the day after surgery dramatically improves pain control after UKR and improves patient satisfaction. |
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Bibliography: | ObjectType-Article-2 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-News-1 ObjectType-Feature-3 content type line 23 |
ISSN: | 0968-0160 1873-5800 |
DOI: | 10.1016/j.knee.2011.04.010 |