Analgesic effect of a single dose of betamethasone after ambulatory knee arthroscopy: a randomized controlled trial

74 patients scheduled for outpatient knee arthroscopy were randomized to receive either a preoperative injection of betamethasone or placebo saline, in addition to standardized multimodal analgesia. The purpose of this study was to evaluate if betamethasone was effective in reducing short-term pain after surgery. The study, however, was terminated early due to slow recruitment and institutional changes, which results in a final sample size smaller than a priori calculations (91 per group). Results demonstrated significantly lower pain in the betamethasone group at 1 day after surgery, but no significant differences between groups were found at 1-4 hours after surgery, or at 3 days after surgery.