Trial to Compare Femoral Nerve Block With Local Anaesthetic Injection for Post-operative Pain After Knee Replacement.

Launched by ROYAL DEVON AND EXETER NHS FOUNDATION TRUST · Nov 7, 2014

Keywords

ClinConnect Summary

Knee pain and stiffness is a common problem which can sometimes be improved by inserting a replacement knee joint. An anaesthetist is a doctor who specialises in looking after patients undergoing surgery, and there are a variety of different anaesthetics which can be used for knee replacement surgery. These include general anaesthesia (going to sleep), and spinal or epidural anaesthesia (where pain killers are injected into the back, resulting in temporarily numb legs). Pain killers can also be injected around the nerves which supply the leg, or around the site of the operation itself, comb...

Gender

ALL

Eligibility criteria

• Inclusion Criteria:
• • All adult patients presenting for primary knee arthroplasty under the care of the Exeter Knee Unit Consultants Messrs Toms, Eyres, Cox, Mandalia, Schrantz.
• Exclusion Criteria:
• • 1. Total knee arthroplasty for trauma
• • 2. Unicompartmental surgery
• • 3. Bilateral surgery
• • 4. Contra indication to spinal anaesthesia or peripheral nerve blocks (anticoagulation, hydrocephalus, raised intracranial pressure, peripheral neuropathy)
• • 5. Allergy to local anaesthetics or morphine
• 6. Chronic pain:
• • Under active follow up by chronic pain team
• • Chronic strong opiate use (morphine, oxycodone, buprenorphine, pethidine, methadone). Codeine, dihydrocodeine and tramadol are not included
• • Other chronic pain medications (including gabapentin, pregabalin or amitriptyline)
• • 7. Unable to adequately understand verbal explanations or written information given in English, or patients with special communication needs -