Continuous psoas and sciatic block after knee arthroplasty: good effects compared to epidural analgesia or i.v. opioid analgesia: a prospective study of 63 patients.

Introduction: For endoprosthetic knee surgery, intensive postoperative pain therapy is necessary. We therefore evaluated whether the combination of continuous psoas compartment and sciatic analgesia (PSC) is as effective as epidural analgesia (EPI) and whether it provides better analgesia than patient-controlled intravenous analgesia with piritramide (PCA).

Methods: We studied 63 patients who underwent total knee arthroplasty (TKA).