Ultrasound-guided adductor canal block combined with lateral femoral cutaneous nerve block for post-operative analgesia following total knee arthroplasty: a prospective, double-blind, randomized controlled study

• Published in: International orthopaedics 2021-06, Vol.45 (6), p.1421-1429
• Main Authors: Li, Donghai, Alqwbani, Mohammed, Wang, Qiuru, Yang, Zhouyuan, Liao, Ren, Kang, Pengde
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Original Paper; Orthopedics
• ISSN: 0341-2695; 1432-5195
• DOI: 10.1007/s00264-020-04549-2

Purpose The purpose of this study was to investigate whether adductor canal block (ACB) combined with lateral femoral cutaneous nerve block (LFCNB) could improve the efficacy of post-operative analgesia in a comparison with a standard peri-articular infiltration analgesia (PIA) after a total knee arthroplasty (TKA). Methods One hundred and sixty patients of scheduled unilateral primary TKA were randomly allocated into two groups for post-operative analgesia. Eighty cases were treated with ACB combined with LFCNB and the other eighty treated with PIA. The primary outcomes were pain visual analogue scale (VAS) and rescue pain killer consumption, and the secondary outcomes were knee active range of motion (ROM), quadriceps strength, patients’ ambulation ability, Knee Society Score (KSS), length of hospital stay, and adverse events. Results We found that ACB combined with LFCNB was better on decreasing the post-operative pain score within 12 hours at rest and 8 h with activity ( p