A recent study illustrated that there was an elevation in the chances of early wound leakage on the introduction of local infiltrative analgesia (LIA) with 1 mg of epinephrine and 30 mL of ropivacaine 2%. LIA after adding up ropivacaine and epinephrine enhances the chances of early wound leakage after knee arthroplasty.

This study was done to assess the occurrence of early wound leakage and after surgery pain following knee arthroplasty after the LIA with 30 cc ropivacaine 2% and 1 mg epinephrine.

In this study, the prevalence of early wound leakage subsequent to knee arthroplasty after the alteration of local infiltrative analgesia with 1 mg epinephrine and 30 cc ropivacaine 2% was evaluated. Five hundred two patients who were undergoing a knee arthroplasty participated in this study. One group received local infiltrative analgesia with the addition of 120 mL 2 mg/mL ropivacaine(ROPI- group).  The second group received LIA by adding up 150 mL 2 mg/mL ropivacaine with 1 mg epinephrine (ROPI + group). The primary effect noted was early wound leakage. The 10-point numeric rating scale (NRS) was also assessed, and the data was assessed with the use of logistic regression.

The prevalence of wound leakage was more in the ROPI + group as compared to ROPI- group. The postoperative pain assessment was the same for ROPI + and ROPI- group. 

It was concluded that alteration of the LIA with epinephrine and ropivacaine resulted in augmented cases of early wound leakage in knee arthroplasty.