Postoperative Analgesie und funktionelles Outcome nach komplexen Knieoperationen; ein prospektiver, randomisierter Vergleich: Psoaskompartment-Katheter versus Femoralis-Katheter versus kombiniertem Femoralis-und Ischiadicus-Katheter

After total-knee replacement, continous femoral nerve block is a well-accepted technique for regional analgesia. But many patients still suffer pain at the popliteal space of the knee. The goal of this study is to evaluate whether a psoas compartment catheter provides better postoperative analgesia than a femoral nerve catheter does and whether it is as effective as the combination of a femoral and a sciatic nerve catheter. Eighty-nine patients who underwent total-knee replacement received one of this catheter-regime. Patient-controlled analgesia with piritramide was available for 48 hours. Furthermore the functional outcome and the value of the pain was detected 48 hours postoperative. We conclude, that the FEM/SCI catheter is superior to FEM and PSOAS catheter with respect to reduced analgesic requirements after total knee-replacement, but functional outcome does not differ with those 3 continous regional analgesia techniques.