Affiliation:
1. Department of Anaesthesia and Management, Asklepeion Voulas General Hospital, Athens; 2 Department of Anaesthesia Critical Care and Pain Management, The Royal Brompton and Harefield NHS Trust, Harefield Hospital, London, UK; 3 Anaesthesia Cancer and Surgery Division, Imperial College London, UK
Abstract
Background: Up until now, the optimal strategy for postoperative pain management after
total knee arthroplasty (TKA) remains to be elucidated.
Objective: The current investigation aimed to examine the analgesic efficacy and the
opioid sparing effects of intravenous parecoxib in combination with continuous femoral
blockade.
Study Design: Randomized, double-blind, prospective trial.
Setting: University hospital in the United Kingdom.
Methods: In total, 90 patients underwent TKA under subarachnoid anesthesia and
received continuous femoral block initially as a bolus with 20 mL of ropivacaine 0.75%.
Infusion of 0.2% on 10 mL/h followed. Patients were randomized into 2 groups. Group D
and Group P received parecoxib and placebo, respectively at 12 hour time intervals. Visual
analog scale (VAS) pain scores were obtained at different time intervals including 4, 8, 12, 24
and 36 hours. The pain scores were measured with patients in a resting position. Morphine
could also be administered with a patient controlled analgesia (PCA) pump if the specified
analgesia was deemed inadequate (VAS > 5).
Results: None of the patients were withdrawn from the study. Parecoxib provided greater
relief than placebo following TKA. The VAS pain scores measured at rest were statistically
significantly lower in parecoxib-treated patients compared to the placebo group (P = 0.007)
at 4 (P = 0.044), 12 (P = 0.001), and 24 hours (P = 0.012), postoperatively. Patients receiving
parecoxib consumed less morphine at all time intervals than patients receiving placebo,
with borderline statistical significance (P = 0.054). In each time period, all patients receiving
continuous femoral block irrespectively of the treatment group, required low morphine
doses.
Limitations: Current protocol did not answer question as to functional recovery.
Conclusion: According to our findings intravenous parecoxib in combination with
continuous femoral block provided superior analgesic efficacy and opioid sparing effects in
patients undergoing TKA.
Key words: Anesthesia, TKA, morphine, opioids, VAS scores, continuous femoral block
Publisher
American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians
Subject
Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine