title: Postoperative pain control for total knee arthroplasty: continuous femoral nerve block versus intravenous patient controlled analgesia.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Pain after total knee arthroplasty is severe and impacts functional recovery.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  We performed a retrospective study, comparing conventional patient control analgesia (PCA) modalities versus continuous femoral nerve blockade (CFNB) for 1582 post-TKA (total knee arthroplasty) patients.
  
  
  METHODS
  Using our electronic acute pain service (APS) database, we reviewed the data of 579 patients who had received CFNBs compared with 1003 patients with intravenous PCA over 4 years.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Our results show that the incidence of a severe pain episode was higher in the PCA compared with the CFNB group. Lower pain scores were observed in the CFNB group compared with the PCA group from postoperative day (POD) 1 to 3, primarily due to lower rest pain scores in the CFNB group.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our study shows that there is improvement in pain scores, at rest and on movement, as well as a reduction in incidence of severe pain, in patients who receive CFNB versus those who receive intravenous PCA.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anesthesiology, Intensive Care and Pain Medicine, Tan Tock Seng Hospital, Singapore.
authors.forename: Rui Min
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: Department of Anesthesiology, Intensive Care and Pain Medicine, Tan Tock Seng Hospital, Singapore.
authors.forename: John Boon
authors.initials: JB
authors.lastname: Lim Tey
authors.affiliation: Department of Anesthesiology, Intensive Care and Pain Medicine, Tan Tock Seng Hospital, Singapore.
authors.forename: Nicholas Hai Liang
authors.initials: NH
authors.lastname: Chua
keywords: Analgesia, Patient Controlled; Arthroplasty, Replacement, Knee; Nerve Block