Ss. Reuben et Nr. Connelly, Postoperative analgesia for outpatient arthroscopic knee surgery with intraarticular clonidine, ANESTH ANAL, 88(4), 1999, pp. 729-733
Citations number
21
Categorie Soggetti
Aneshtesia & Intensive Care","Medical Research Diagnosis & Treatment
Intraarticular (IA) local anesthetics are often used for the management and
prevention of pain after arthroscopic knee surgery. Clonidine prolongs the
duration of local anesthetics. We designed this study to determine whether
clonidine added to an IA injection would result in an analgesic benefit. F
ifty patients were randomly assigned to one of five groups that received cl
onidine (either via the subcutaneous or IA route) or saline placebo with or
without IA bupivacaine, as follows: Group 1 received 30 mt of 0.25% bupiva
caine IA; Group 2 received 30 mt of 0.25% bupivacaine with clonidine (1 mu
g/kg) IA; Group 3 received 30 mt of 0.25% bupivacaine IA and subcutaneous c
lonidine (1 mu g/kg); Group 4 received 30 mt of 0.25% bupivacaine with epin
ephrine (5 mu g/mL) IA; and Group 5 received clonidine (1 mu g/kg) in 30 mt
of saline IA. The results of this study revealed a significant difference
in analgesia from the IA administration of clonidine. The group who receive
d a combination of IA bupivacaine and clonidine had a significantly decreas
ed need for oral postoperative analgesics and an increased analgesic durati
on (P < 0.0001). We conclude that IA clonidine improved comfort in patients
undergoing knee arthroscopy. Implications: The intraarticular administrati
on of clonidine along with bupivacaine results in a significant improvement
in analgesia compared with either drug alone. There was an increased time
to first analgesic request and a decreased need for postoperative analgesic
s.