Osteoarthritis, Pain
Conditions
Keywords
early ambulation, knee arthroplasty
Brief summary
To compare early ambulation and ability to participate in rehabilitation in patients undergoing total knee replacement using two different nerve block techniques for pain control. The 2 methods are 1) Adductor canal block with posterior capsular injection 2) femoral nerve block with tibial nerve block
Detailed description
Early mobilization in the postoperative period is important to the success of surgery following total knee replacement. However, severe post-operative pain is an impediment to early implementation of rehabilitaion program. The use of femoral nerve block combined with tibial nerve block as part of a multimodal analgesic program provides effective pain control but causes weakness of the operative extremity preventing patients from bearing weight, exercising the leg and increasing the risk of falls thereby delaying early participation in rehabilitation. Adductor canal block is a new technique that has been described to provide pain control after total knee arthroplasty (1). The advantages of this block is that it could potentially minimize lower extremity weakness because the target nerve (saphenous nerve) blocked in this technique is a purely sensory nerve and does not provide any motor innervation to any muscle groups. Adductor canal block lends itself easily to providing prolonged analgesia because a perineural catheter can be inserted and the block maintained by a continuous infusion of dilute local anesthetic solution for days. A disadvantage of this method is that it may not provide adequate analgesia for posterior knee pain in the early postoperative period. By combining adductor canal block with ultrasound guided posterior and antero-medial knee injection, the posterior knee pain can be controlled effectively. Posterior and antero-medial knee injection of local anesthetic solution has been used as a method of controlling posterior knee pain after total knee arthroplasty (2).
Interventions
PROCEDURECanal Block and Capsular Injection
Continuous Adductor canal block with 15-30ml of ropivacaine 0.1% with epinephrine 1:400,000 followed by an infusion of ropivacaine 0.1% at 6 ml per hour for 2 days post operatively. This is combined with ultrasound guided posterior capsular knee injection with 30 ml ropivacaine 0.1% with epinephrine 1:400,000.
PROCEDUREFemoral with Tibial Nerve Block
Continuous femoral nerve block with 15 ml of ropivacaine 0.1% followed by an infusion of ropivacaine 0.1% at 6 ml per hour for 2 days after surgery combined with tibial nerve block in the popliteal fossa with ropivacaine 0.1% up to 15 ml.
Sponsors
Trinity Health Of New England
Study design
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Primary purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
SINGLE (Caregiver)
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
18 Years to 80 Years
Healthy volunteers
No
Inclusion criteria
* Patients having primary, unilateral total knee arthroplasty * ages 18 - 80
Exclusion criteria
* history of neurological disease * neuropathy * diabetes * major systemic illness * pregnancy * chronic narcotic use * allergy to local anesthetic solution or NSAIDS * inability to give consent or cooperate with the study protocol * BMI\> 40
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Ability to ambulate post operatively. | Up to 3 days (72 hours) post surgery. | Ability to ambulate and perform tasks of the rehabilitation program and reach rehabilitation milestones after total knee arthroplasty. |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Pain scores at rest and with knee flexion. | Up to 3 days ( 72 hours) after surgery | Measures of pain score using numeric pain rating scale (0=no pain, 10=worst pain) completed by patient in recovery room and every 6 hours for a 72 hour period after discharge from recovery room. |
| Pain Medication Consumption | Up to 3 days (72 hours) post surgery | Amount of opioid consumption post surgery for 72 hours. |
Countries
United States
Outcome results
None listed