Postoperative Analgesia After Total Knee Arthroplasty. A Comparison of Continuous Femoral Block and Extensive Intraoperative Infiltration With Local Anesthetic Supplemented With Intraarticular Bolus the Following Day.

Postoperative pain after total knee arthroplasty is moderate to severe and can be difficult to treat. The current use of femoral nerve block by ropivacain pump for 48 hours provides considerable analgesia, but patients often experience slight motor block, inhibiting rehabilitation, and pain in the posterior part of the knee, innervated by the sciatic nerve. This study compares femoral nerve block to a new technique, where ropivacaine, ketorolac and adrenalin is used to infiltrate the tissue in and around the knee joint during surgery, and is injected by an intraarticular catheter at 10 pm on the day of surgery and again at 10 am the day after. Data of pain scores, analgesia consumption, adverse effects and mobilisation is collected for the first four postoperative days.