Does Adding an Additional Numbing Medication Injection in the Thigh Help With Pain Control After Knee Replacement Surgery?

Overview

One common anesthetic that is performed for total knee replacement surgery is spinal anesthesia with an adductor canal regional block, which involves injecting numbing medication in the thigh region for pain control after surgery. The aim of this study is to determine whether the addition of another regional block called obturator nerve block, which involves injecting numbing medication in the upper thigh region, will improve pain control after surgery while not sacrificing mobility after surgery.

There is currently no consensus on the optimal strategy that provides the most effective postoperative analgesia while preserving ambulation and limiting side effects such as nausea and vomiting. The clinical team's hypothesis is that the obturator nerve block in addition to adductor canal block can target both the anterior and posterior distribution of nerves to the knee to provide superior analgesia while not limiting ambulation. To test this hypothesis, the clinical team will compare the rate of IV opioid consumption in patients who receive a combination of adductor canal block and obturator nerve block at the surgical site versus patients who receive adductor canal block alone.

Conditions