Efficacy of continuous intra-articular bupivacaine infusion for postoperative analgesia after anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction: a double-blinded, placebo-controlled, prospective, and randomized study

This report has been verified by one or more authors of the original publication.

63 patients undergoing anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction (ACLR) (using ipsilateral quadrupled semitendinosus graft) were randomized to three groups. Group I received 0.25% bupivacaine infused intra-articularly (intervention), Group II received 0.9% saline infused intra-articularly (placebo) and Group III received no intra-articular infusion catheter (control). Results showed that there were no statistically significant differences between the three groups in the outcomes of visual analogue scale (VAS) pain scores and analgesic use over the course of the entire study at the 96-hour follow-up.