Analgesia and side effects of the addition of 10 or 20 µg fentanyl to articaine in spinal anesthesia for knee arthroscopy: a randomized and observer-blinded study.

Objectives: Articaine, a popular and rapidly acting local anesthetic in dentistry, has been also found to be beneficial in ambulatory spinal anesthesia. Analgesia in the intraoperative and immediate postoperative period may be further improved by adding fentanyl to the local anesthetic solution for spinal anesthesia. The aim was to evaluate dose-dependency of analgesia and side effects associated with intrathecal fentanyl additive to articaine for spinal anesthesia in knee arthroscopy patients.