Percutaneous periarticular analgesic injection After TKA Relieves Post-operative Pain

It was a prospective, single-centre, two-arm, parallel-group, open-label, and randomized controlled study of 44 patients (88 knees) who underwent simultaneous bilateral TKA. The researchers randomly as////signed the patients to receive a percutaneous periarticular injection at 1 day following surgery (n = 22 patients) or no injection (n = 22 patients). In the additional injection group, they injected a solution including methylprednisolone, ropivacaine, and epinephrine into the muscle belly of the vastus medialis at 1 day after surgery. All patients received an intraoperative periarticular multi-drug injection and postoperative intravenous and oral nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. The major outcome assessed was the postoperative pain at rest measured using a visual analogue scale (VAS) and analyzed with Student's t-test.

Key findings of the study were:

• Upon analysis, the researchers found that compared to the no additional injection group, the additional periarticular injection group had a significantly lower VAS score at

◊ 8:00 PM postoperative day 1,

◊ 6:00 AM postoperative day 2,

◊ 12:00 PM postoperative day 2,

◊ 6:00 AM postoperative day 5,

◊ 12:00 PM postoperative day 5, and

◊ 8:00 PM postoperative day 5.

• They reported a similar rate of complication in both groups.

The authors concluded, "The additional percutaneous periarticular multi-drug injection at 1 day after simultaneous bilateral TKA may reduce early postoperative pain more effectively than no additional injection. This technique may be a new method for postoperative pain control after TKA."

For further information:

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s13018-021-02507-1