ABSTRACT
[Objective]To observe the effect of preemptive analgesia with continuous epidual anesthesia in total knee arthroplasty.[Methods]Fifty-four patients who were treated in author's hospital were randomly assigned into two groups with 27 patients in each.One group was treated with 0.125% ropivacaine 2 ml/h through epidual catheter since 12 hours before the operation.The other group was given saline at the same rate.All the patients received general anaesthesia in the operation.The use of patient controlled analgesia(PCA) with epidual anesthesia was initiated 48 hours after operation.PCA was used as a supplement when the patients comldn't bear the pain.The following variations were compared between these two groups:visual analog score(VAS),the incidences of complication,deep vein thrombosis(DVT),the time of the ability to actively reach 90 degree knee flexion,the range of motion(ROM) and the chronic pain after operation.[Results]The following variations were statistically significantly lower in ropivacaine group than that in the saline group:VAS,DVT,the time to reach 90 degree knee flextion,while ROM 6 months and 1 year after operation were significant higher.There were no statistically significant differences between groups in the incidence of the side effects during the two days after the operation and the chronic pain for a longer time.[Conclusion]Preemptive analgesia with continuous epidual anesthesia can alleviate the early stage of the pain after total knee arthroplasty,decrease the incidence of the complication and increase the rang of motion without obvious side effects.