Pericapsular Nerve Group (PENG) Block Versus Intra-articular Injection for Hip Arthroscopy: A Randomized Trial

Hip arthroscopy is a popular surgical method that is increasingly being used for both intraarticular and extraarticular hip surgeries. Postoperative acute pain is difficult to control in hip surgeries due to the complex nature of hip innervation and the large number of surgical interventions. Optimal treatment of postoperative pain in hip arthroscopy is very important to be able to perform rehabilitation, avoid opioid side effects and minimize unplanned re-hospitalization. Regional anesthesia techniques are widely used because of their proven efficacy in post-surgical pain management and their safety profile that ultimately contributes to early recovery. Many regional techniques such as neuraxial blocks, lumbar plexus block, femoral nerve block, fascia iliac block and intraarticular local anesthetic injection have been used for the treatment of acute postoperative pain.

Femoral nerve and fascia iliac blocks have shown good results for long-term post-surgery analgesia. However, the obturator nerve and accessory obturator nerve should be targeted to achieve more effective perioperative pain control. There are studies reporting that pericapsular nerve group block (PENG), which has been defined in recent years, provides effective perioperative analgesia in hip surgeries. In this study, we aim to compare the effectiveness of PENG block and intra-articular local anesthetic injection in hip arthroscopy.