engleski

Our experience with femoral analgesia after orthopaedic surgical procedures on lower extremities

Background and Purpose: Orthopaedic surgical procedures require good postoperative pain control since they are considered the most painful procedures. Continuous femoral analgesia via femoral catheter is recognised as a good method in postoperative analgesia. The objective of this study is to analyze the efficiency, technical difficulties and complications of femoral analgesia after orthopaedic surgical procedures on lower extremities. Materials and Methods: The Ethics Committee of the University hospital approved this study and 90 patients gave a written consent to participate in this prospective randomized study. 36 out of 90 patients underwent total knee replacement surgery (group TKR), 54 underwent anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction (group ACL). All patients recived analgesia via femoral catheter using continuous 0.25% levobupuvacaine. We analyzed the efficiency of analgesia technique by assessing visual-analog scale score, difficulties in identification of femoral nerve and catheter fixation, time necessary to set the catheter, early and later complications and patient satisfaction with analgesia. Results: There were a statistically significant difference noted in gender, age and ASA score distribution of patients (P<0.05). Statistically significant difference in VAS score between groups occurred 8 hours after the operation (P<0.001). There were no statistically significant differences between the groups regarding development of early and later complications, number of punctures or accidental punctures neither of veins nor in the time necessary to fixate the catheter. The femoral catheter was sucessfully fixated in all patients. Conclusion: Femoral analgesia is a good method of postoperative analgesia in patients after orthopaedic procedures in lower extremities.

femoral analgesia ; visual-analog scale ; orthopaedic surgical procedures ; total knee replacement surgery ; anterior cruciata ligament reconstruction

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