Peripheral nerve block (FLOS block) for intraoperative anesthesia in total knee arthroplasty: An observational study

Abstract

Background: Peripheral nerve blocks (PNBs) are generally used to provide postoperative analgesia after total knee arthroplasty (TKA) and other lower extremity procedures; these blocks are used rarely for intraoperative anesthesia. We present here, the patients who underwent TKA under PNBs (FLOS Block). FLOS block is nothing but femoral, lateral cutaneous femoral nerve, obturator, and sciatic nerve block. Materials and Methods: A total of 41 patients participated in the study for TKA using PNB, FLOS block. All the patients received standardized anesthesia and analgesia upon hospitalization. Outcome evaluations included the visual analog scale (VAS) scores during surgery, activity at rest, postoperative blood pressure, and heart rate, also the sedation for femoral, lateral cutaneous femoral nerve obturator and sciatic nerve (FLOS) blocks. Compared with neuraxial (spinal/epidural) anesthesia, PNB (FLOS Block) minimizes hypotension, minimizes urinary retention, improves patient satisfaction, ambulation restrictions, and eliminates the risk of spinal hematoma and infection. Results: The finding suggests a decreased requirement of opioids in the PNB technique (FLOS Block). Pain scores, assessed by subjective VAS scale, were accurately handled in all the patients reviewed, with good pain control with PNB (FLOS Block). PNB (FLOS Block) provided stable hemodynamic, prolonged, and better postoperative analgesia. Intraoperative anesthesia was very satisfactory for surgery. The requirement of total doses of rescue analgesics, VAS score peroperatively for 48 h, the incidence of side effects, and complications were very few and acceptable. Conclusion: A femoral, sciatic nerve block with obturator and lateral femoral cutaneous nerve block may be an option to the spinal epidural anesthesia in the patients undergoing TKA. PNB (FLOS Block) showed similar patient satisfaction and postoperative analgesia to spinal-epidural anesthesia.