Pain Management for a Total Knee Replacement Patient

Pains that are experienced by patients after a successive knee surgery are very common. This problem has been a subject of investigations in medicine. A number of methods have been used it solve this problem. Some of the methods used include applying anesthesia over the dura mater of the brain (epidural anesthetics). This practice, for the past many years has been used to deal with the problem. However, due to the slow response in patients, it was discovered lately that local anesthetics could do the job faster and more efficiently.

Local infiltration anesthesia is a preparation of the mixture of ropivacaine, ketorolac and adrenalin. Ropivacaine alone is a good local anesthesia. It is the modern choice over bupivacain. It involves administering a direct injection on the knee joint (subcutaneously) that has undergone surgery. It is ensured that the needle punctures the joint capsule into the synovial fluid. 52 milliliters of the anesthesia is used for the treatment. It has less toxic effects and no negative side effects inclusion of the other two is important especially when dealing with prolonged post operational pains.

Epidural anesthesia, which was commonly used in the past, involves administering the anesthesia over the dura mater. Care should be taken not to prick the nerves as it might cause paralysis or paraesthesia.

It takes about 4 days for the pain to dissipate in patients using local anesthesia, while about 5-6 days in patients using epidural anesthesia. Patients who receive local anesthesia also have a higher satisfaction than those who receive epidural anesthesia. The mobility of the joint is also better in local anesthesia, one or two days after surgery.

Notably, local infiltration anesthesia technique is more recommendable for postoperative pain control after total knee surgery as compared to epidural anesthesia. It ensures better pain relief, faster mobilization, and more satisfied patients.