Pn. Convery et al., Low-dose intra-articular ketorolac for pain relief following arthroscopy of the knee joint, ANAESTHESIA, 53(11), 1998, pp. 1125-1129
Citations number
15
Categorie Soggetti
Aneshtesia & Intensive Care","Medical Research Diagnosis & Treatment
The systemic administration of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory agents has be
en shown to improve analgesia following arthroscopy of the knee joint. Keto
rolac 60 mg, when given intra-articularly, provides better postoperative an
algesia than an identical dose administered systemically. We compared the p
ostoperative analgesic effect of ketorolac 10 mg given intravenously with 5
mg intra-articularly in 60 patients undergoing arthroscopy of the knee joi
nt under general anaesthesia. Patients were randomly allocated in a double-
blind manner to receive 0.25% bupivacaine 20 mi and ketorolac 5 mg intra-ar
ticularly (n = 27) or intravenous ketorolac 10 mg followed by 0.25% bupivic
aine 20 mi (n = 30) at the end of surgery. There were no differences betwee
n the groups in terms of their physical characteristics or in the nature of
procedure performed. There was no statistical difference between the two g
roups in time to first analgesia or postoperative visual analogue pain scor
es at 1, 2 and 4 h (p = 0.6). The median consumption of a standard analgesi
c was reduced in the intra-articular group in the second 24-h period but th
is did not achieve statistical significance (p = 0.08). Only five patients
in total needed postoperative morphine. A reduced amount of locally applied
ketorolac (5 mg) provides similar analgesia to a higher systemic dose (10
mg) following knee arthroscopy.