NCT01759277

Femoral Versus Adductor Canal Continuous Peripheral Nerve Blocks for Knee Arthroplasty

• Status: Completed
• Phase: Phase 4
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 80 (actual)
• Sponsor: University of California, San Diego · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Not accepted

Summary

Patients typically experience moderate-to-severe pain following knee arthroplasty that is usually treated with a combination of oral and intravenous analgesics and enhanced by continuous peripheral nerve blocks. There are currently two locations to place a perineural catheter to provide analgesia following knee arthroplasty: a femoral nerve catheter and an adductor canal catheter. Both have been demonstrated to be effective following knee arthroplasty. However, it remains unknown if one location is superior to the other; or, more accurately, what the relative benefits are to each technique. While femoral CPNB has many benefits, one of the challenges of using this technique is that there is a decrease in quadriceps muscle strength which can be a limiting factor for rehabilitation. In contrast, the adductor canal catheter affects only the vastus medialis. This block may lessen block-induced quadriceps weakness following knee arthroplasty compared with a femoral infusion. The investigators hypothesize that compared with femoral perineural local anesthetic infusion, an adductor canal infusion is associated with a shorter time until four discharge criteria are met: (1) adequate analgesia; (2) independence from intravenous analgesics; (3) ability to ambulate 30 m; and (4) ability to stand, walk 3 m, and return to a sitting position without another's assistance.

Detailed description

Of importance: The primary investigation involves 80 evaluable subjects (with primary endpoint data) having tri-compartment knee arthroplasty. In addition, the investigators will enroll up to 70 subjects having uni-compartment knee arthroplasty as a pilot study in preparation for a subsequent larger, definitive trial. These two groups will not be analyzed together--they represent two distinct studies: one a definitive RCT for tri-compartment knee arthroplasty; and, one a pilot study for uni-compartment knee arthroplasty.

Conditions

• Postoperative Pain Following Knee Arthroplasty

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
DRUG	Control: Femoral perineural local anesthetic infusion	The control group will receive a femoral nerve block and postoperative ropivacaine 0.2% infusion
DRUG	Experimental: Adductor Canal perineural local anesthetic infusion	The control group will receive an adductor canal nerve block and postoperative ropivacaine 0.2% infusion

Timeline

• Start date: 2012-12-01
• Primary completion: 2014-09-01
• Completion: 2014-09-01
• First posted: 2013-01-03
• Last updated: 2021-02-18
• Results posted: 2020-02-17

Locations

1 site across 1 country: United States

Regulatory

• FDA-regulated drug study