The use of intra-articular magnesium can be used as an effective and safe coadjuvant therapy for postoperative pain relief following the arthroscopic knee surgery, as revealed from a study in Journal of Orthopaedic Surgery and Research.

In order to determine the effectiveness of Magnesium for pain relief in arthroscopy, the study authors searched Embase, PubMed, Medline, Cochrane library, and Web of Science to recognize the randomized trials that evaluated postoperative pain outcomes with or without magnesium used intra-articularly following knee arthroscopy. Primary outcomes were pain intensity at starting and with movement at various postoperative time points (2 hours, 4 hours, 12 hours, and 24 hours) and collective opioid usage in a day following surgery. Secondary outcomes encompassed the time to request of initial analgesic and adverse effects.

Eleven studies comprising of 677 study patients fulfilled the eligibility criteria. As found, the pain scores at rest and with movement at the specified time points following surgery were considerably lesser, doses of supplementary opioid intake were smaller, and the time to first analgesic need was lengthier in the patients with intra-articular magnesium group than control group.