Abstract
Various drugs are administered intraarticularly to provide postoperative analgesia after arthroscopic knee surgery, of which opioids and alpha2 agonists could be of particular interest. Sixty patients undergoing elective knee arthroscopy were randomly assigned to two groups (n = 30). Group R received 19 ml of 0.25% ropivacaine and 1 ml of isotonic saline (total volume 20 ml) intraarticularly. Group RD received 100 microg (1 ml) of dexmedetomidine added to 19 ml of 0.25% ropivacaine intra-articularly (total volume 20 ml). Analgesic effect was evaluated by measuring pain intensity (VAS score) and duration of analgesia. A longer delay was observed between intraarticular injection of study medication and first requirement of supplementary analgesic in group RD (10.84 +/- 2.6 hours) compared to group R (5.38 +/- 1.4 hours). Total consumption of fentanyl citrate in postoperative period was significantly less in group RD. No significant side effects were noted. Dexmedetomidine, added as adjunct to ropivacaine in patients undergoing arthroscopic knee surgery, improve the quality and duration of postoperative analgesia.
Highlights
Various drugs are administered intraarticularly to provide postoperative analgesia after arthroscopic knee surgery, of which opioids and alpha agonists could be of particular interest
Dexmedetomidine, added as adjunct to ropivacaine in patients undergoing arthroscopic knee surgery, improve the quality and duration of postoperative analgesia
Postoperative pain relief is essential for early rehabilitation after arthroscopic knee surgery
Summary
Various drugs are administered intraarticularly to provide postoperative analgesia after arthroscopic knee surgery, of which opioids and alpha agonists could be of particular interest. Arthroscopic surgery is associated with variable amount of postoperative pain and sometimes the pain is considerable. Postoperative pain relief is essential for early rehabilitation after arthroscopic knee surgery. Intra-articular administration of various drugs provides satisfactory analgesia in immediate postoperative period. Local anaesthetics like lidocaine and bupivacaine, opioids like morphine, alpha-2 adrenoceptor agonists like clonidine and magnesium sulphate have all been tried intraarticularly alone or in combination to provide effective postoperative analgesia [1,2,3,4,5]. Dexmedetomidine is a highly selective alpha-2 adrenergic agonist with sedative, anxiolytic, analgesic, sympatholytic and antihypertensive effects [6].
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