Analgesic Effect Of Intra-articular Bupivacaine Fentanyl for Postoperative Pain Relief in Knee Arthroscopic Surgery

However, local anesthetic agents can produce analgesia for a limited time when used as a single injection. Bupivacaine is a local anesthetic that has an immediate action on pain by blocking peripheral afferents. However, as the ideal analgesic, the drug must cover the whole postoperative period (≥ 24 hours); therefore, bupivacaine is usually combined with many adjutants to provide long-lasting post-arthroscopy analgesia.

Intr-articular drug administration has gained popularity because of its simplicity and efficacy in achieving anesthesia for diagnostic and operative arthroscopy and for providing postoperative analgesia .although the knee joint has been examined most commonly, arthroscopy of other joints such as shoulder, ankle, wrist, metatarsophalangeal and temporomandibular joints is being increasingly used. Intra-articular installation of local anesthesia during arthroscopic procedures has been used by many orthopedic surgeons to provide pain relief after surgery.The aim of this study was to evaluate the analgesic efficacy of intra-articular dexamethasone versus fentanyl added as an adjuvant to bupivacaine in patients undergoing knee arthroscopic surgery