Multimodal pain management and arthrofibrosis

Pain control after arthroplasty has been a key concern for orthopedic surgeons. After total knee arthroplasty (TKA), a small group of patients developed a painful joint with suboptimal range of motion. Manipulation under anesthesia increases flexion and extension while decreasing pain in most cases. The objective of the present investigation is to asses the effect of a multimodal pain management protocol on arthrofibrosis in primary TKAs. A cohort of 1136 patients who underwent primary TKA was selected. Patients were divided into 2 groups: group A had 778 procedures performed using a traditional approach to pain control; group B included 358 procedures that received multimodal pain management. Group A had an incidence of manipulation of 4.75% (37/778). Of 357 patients, 8 required manipulation in group B, which is an incidence of 2.24%. We recommend that orthopedic surgeons consider using a multimodal pain management protocol for TKA.