JOURNAL HOME CME HOME THIS MONTH PAST ISSUES ETOC COLLECTIONS AUTHORS REVIEWERS EDITORIAL BOARD FEEDBACK RSS HELP
		QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s): Year:  Vol:  Page:

This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a colleague Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in ISI Web of Science Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via ISI Web of Science (7) Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Rosseland, L. A. Articles by Stubhaug, A. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Rosseland, L. A. Articles by Stubhaug, A. Related Collections Pain Pharmacology

---

PAIN MEDICINE

Moderate-to-Severe Pain After Knee Arthroscopy Is Relieved by Intraarticular Saline: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Leiv A. Rosseland, MD^*, Knut G. Helgesen, MD DMSc, Harald Breivik, MD DMSc FRCA^*, and Audun Stubhaug, MD DMSc^*

*Department of Anesthesia, Rikshospitalet University Hospital and the Department of Anesthesia, Lovisenberg Diakonale Hospital, Oslo, Norway

Address correspondence to Leiv A. Rosseland, Rikshospitalet University Hospital, Department of Anesthesia, 0027 Oslo, Norway. Address email to l.a.rosseland{at}klinmed.uio.no

We have previously studied intraarticular (IA) analgesics compared with saline 10 mL in 2 randomized clinical trials. The patients who were given IA saline experienced rapid pain relief. Hypothetically, saline may produce a local analgesic effect by cooling or by diluting IA algogenic substances. This randomized double-blind study compared the analgesic effect of IA saline 10 mL with saline 1 mL, which should be a pure placebo. A soft catheter was left IA in 79 patients. We included 60 patients who developed moderate-to-severe pain within 1 h after knee arthroscopy under general anesthesia. A randomized, double-blind controlled comparison of IA saline 10 mL with saline 1 mL followed. Outcome measures were pain intensity, pain relief, and analgesic consumption. Within 1 h pain intensity decreased in both groups from approximately 50 to approximately 27 on a 0–100 mm visual analog scale. Pain intensity remained low and other pain outcome measures were similar during the 36-h observation period. The patients experienced equally good pain relief after IA injection of saline 10 mL and 1 mL. Our finding of a major placebo effect may have implications for the interpretation of previously published placebo-controlled IA analgesia studies.

IMPLICATIONS: In a randomized controlled trial we showed that pain after knee arthroscopy is modest and short-lived and can successfully be treated with intraarticular saline as placebo.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				L. A. Rosseland, C. D. Krohn, and A. Stubhaug Synovial Fluid Concentration of Prostaglandin E2 Correlates with Pain Intensity After Knee Arthroscopic Procedures Anesth. Analg., February 1, 2007; 104(2): 460 - 461. [Full Text] [PDF]

				Minerva BMJ, August 14, 2004; 329(7462): E317 - E317. [Full Text] [PDF]

				Minerva BMJ, June 5, 2004; 328(7452): 1386 - 1386. [Full Text] [PDF]

Anesthesia & Analgesia® is published for the International Anesthesia Research Society® by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins with the assistance of Stanford University Libraries' HighWire Press®. Copyright 2006 by the International Anesthesia Research Society. Online ISSN: 1526-7598   Print ISSN: 0003-2999