• David F Johnston, Rakesh V Sondekoppam, Vishal Uppal, James L Howard, and Sugantha Ganapathy.
• Department of Anesthesia and Perioperative Medicine, Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast Health & Social Care Trust, Belfast, UK.
• Clin J Pain. 2018 Mar 1; 34 (3): 222-230.

IntroductionThis narrative review article aims to examine current evidence of knee innervation in order to develop a technique of targeting pure sensory innervation of the knee joint without compromising motor function.MethodsA literature review of knee innervation was performed to gain an anatomic understanding of terminal sensory branches of the relevant target nerves (femoral, obturator, sciatic, and lateral femoral cutaneous).ResultsPure sensory block of the knee joint is challenging due to important contributions from themuscular innervation close to the joint and the variability of nerves afferents contained within and around the adductor canal.ConclusionOn the basis of this anatomic knowledge we describe an ultrasound-guided 3-injection hybrid technique that represents a balance between preserving adequate motor power while still providing analgesia in a simple method.

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