Korean J Anesthesiol.  1998 Jul;35(1):120-124. 10.4097/kjae.1998.35.1.120.

Intra-articular Morphine for Pain Relief after Arthroscopic Knee Surgery

• Bai SJ
• Cho BJ
• Nam SH
• Lee HC
• Ahn EK

• KMID: 2298918
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.4097/kjae.1998.35.1.120

Abstract

BACKGROUND
Opioids can produce potent antinociceptive effects by interacting with local opioid receptors in inflamed peripheral tissue. However, reports on pain relief with intra-articular morphine after arthroscopic knee operations are conflicting. In this study we examined the analgesic effects of the intraarticular administration of morphine after knee surgery.
METHODS
In a double-blind, randomized trial, we studied 26 patients who had received one of two injections at the end of surgery. The patients in group M(n=11) received 3 mg of morphine intraarticularly; those in group P(n=15), saline 20 ml intraarticularly as a placebo.
RESULTS
Patients in the morphine group had significantly lower pain scores throughout the 24-h postoperative period compared with those in the placebo group(P<0.05). There was less requirement for supplementary analgesics in the morphine group.
CONCLUSIONS
Low doses of intraarticular morphine can significantly reduce pain after knee surgery without any systemic side effect.

Keyword

Analgesia: postoperative; Analgesic technique: intraarticular; Analgesics: morphine; Surgery: arthroscopy; knee

MeSH Terms

Analgesics
Analgesics, Opioid
Humans
Knee*
Morphine*
Postoperative Period
Receptors, Opioid
Analgesics
Analgesics, Opioid
Morphine
Receptors, Opioid