Functional Discharge Readiness and Mobility Following Total Knee Arthroplasty for Osteoarthritis: A Comparison of Analgesic Techniques

This study analyzed secondary outcomes of a previous randomized controlled trial that randomly allocated 200 knee arthroplasty patients into receiving one of the three interventions: 1) single-shot femoral nerve block (FNB) with intravenous patient controlled analgesia (PCA) opioid, 2) continuous FNB with oral opioids, or 3) patient controlled analgesia (PCA) alone. The purpose was to examine if discharge readiness and mobility is delayed with the use of FNB compared to PCA alone. Results revealed that patients who received either single-injection FNB with intravenous PCA or continuous FNB showed no significant delay in achievement of 90 degrees knee flexion, independent walking, and stair climbing compared to those who received PCA alone.