Perioperative pain management in fast-track knee arthroplasty

Fast track surgery for knee arthroplasty is characterized by a perfect perioperative management from patient education to multimodal control of bleeding and excellent pain control. Pain protocols need to be a combination of multimodal pharmacological therapy and Local Infiltration Analgesia with no locoregional analgesia techniques. In Istituto Fiorentino di Cura e Assistenza (IFCA) clinical records 92% of patient have been mobilized the day of surgery achieving a complete autonomy in going to bath¬room and in walking with the aid of two crutches by 87% on day one and 100% on the second postoperative day; all patients were also able to climb and walk down the. At discharge all patientespresented at least 90° of knee flexion. Only 9% incidence of nausea occurred and only 3% needed to delay physical therapy. (www.actabiomedica.it)