The Efficacy of Regional Anesthesia Techniques to Control Postoperative Pain After Total Knee Arthroplasty.

BACKGROUND: Choosing the most effective type of anesthesia for controlling postoperative pain is paramount for improving patient outcomes and patient satisfaction. Most often, the type of anesthesia selected is dependent on the duration and type of surgical procedure and anesthesiologist/surgeon preference. Using a combination of regional anesthesia techniques, however, remains the cornerstone of multimodal analgesia for postoperative pain management after total knee arthroplasty.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to determine what regional anesthesia techniques and/or combinations of regional anesthesia techniques provided the best postoperative pain control in patients who had undergone a total knee arthroplasty.

METHODS: Retrospective chart review.

RESULTS: Patients who received a single-shot regional anesthetic reported significantly more postoperative opiate consumption and requested pain medication significantly sooner than patients who received multimodal techniques of regional analgesia.

CONCLUSION: This study found support for the use of multimodal analgesia techniques for optimum postoperative pain management after total knee arthroplasty.