According to the findings of a randomized controlled pilot trial, the continuous intra-articular local infiltration analgesia, intrathecal morphine, and femoral nerve block do not significantly differ in terms of postsurgery analgesia, opiate needs, and occurrence of adverse effects after total knee arthroplasty. This study was performed to determine the effectiveness of three different techniques to manage post-operative pain and early function after knee arthroplasty.

In this single center, double-blinded, three-armed parallel group study, the volunteers were randomly segregated to get local infiltration analgesia (n=13), femoral nerve block (n=14) or intrathecal morphine (n=14) for postsurgery analgesia after arthroplasty. The effectiveness of analgesia was assessed by recording postsurgery pain visual analogue (VAS) scores, opiate needs and adverse effects, and functional scores at 48 hours, 24 hours, and six weeks after surgery.

No profound differences were noted in postoperative pain scores, additional opiate needs and associated adverse effects, or functional scores at any point during the study. Hence, for delivering post-operative analgesia following knee arthroplasty, intrathecal morphine, local infiltration analgesia, and femoral nerve block have similar efficacy.