Postoperative analgesia after arthroscopic knee surgery: A randomized, prospective, double-blind study of intravenous regional analgesia versus intra-articular analgesia

The aim of this study was to determine the quality of postoperative analgesia in patients undergoing arthroscopic knee surgery using preoperative intravenous regional analgesia. After initial consultation with a statistician, we allocated 36 patients randomly and double-blind to 1 of 3 groups. Group A received intravenous regional analgesia preoperatively, group B received standard postperative intra-articular analgesia, and group C received saline and acted as the placebo. Our results showed no statistically significant difference in pain levels between the groups. However, there was a significantly larger amount of morphine administered by patient-controlled pumps in the placebo group when compared with the 2 treatment groups. There was no such difference between the 2 treatment groups. We concluded that preoperative regional analgesia in this setting is as good as but no better than intra-articular analgesia and that neither technique has any advantages over diclofenac plus patient-controlled analgesia.