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PAIN MEDICINE

Analgesic Effects of Intraarticular Sufentanil and Sufentanil Plus Methylprednisolone After Arthroscopic Knee Surgery

Mehmet Kizilkaya, MD^*, Omer Selim Yildirim, MD, Nazim Dogan, MD^*, Husnu Kursad, MD^*, and Ali Okur, MD

Departments of *Anesthesiology and Reanimation and Orthopaedic Surgery, The School of Medicine, Ataturk University, Erzurum, Turkey

Address correspondence and reprint requests to Dr. Mehmet Kizilkaya, Universite Lojmanlari No:46/4, Erzurum 25240, Turkey. Address email to mkizilkaya65{at}hotmail.com

We studied the effect of intraarticular saline, sufentanil, or sufentanil plus methylprednisolone after knee arthroscopic meniscectomy. In a double-blind randomized study, 60 patients undergoing knee arthroscopic meniscectomy were allocated to groups receiving intraarticular saline, intraarticular sufentanil 10 µg, or sufentanil 10 µg plus methylprednisolone 40 mg at the end of arthroscopy during general anesthesia. Postoperatively, pain levels at rest and during movement (i.e., active flexion of the knee) were measured by a visual analog scale and were significantly decreased in the sufentanil and sufentanil plus methylprednisolone groups compared with the control group. Moreover, we found that there was a significant reduction in intraarticular sufentanil and sufentanil plus methylprednisolone in the postoperative consumption of analgesics. We also found that the use of intraarticular sufentanil or sufentanil plus methylprednisolone after knee arthroscopic meniscectomy decreases the amount of supplementary analgesic needed for pain relief during the early postoperative period. In addition, we detected that sufentanil provided prolonged pain relief up to 24 h when compared with control, whereas when we combined sufentanil plus methylprednisolone, we found that it further reduced pain and use of analgesics when compared with sufentanil.

IMPLICATIONS: The combined use of intraarticular sufentanil (10 µg) and methylprednisolone (40 mg) in arthroscopic meniscectomy surgery reduced both postoperative pain scores and the use of additional analgesics.

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