Arthroscopy : the journal of arthroscopic & related surgery : official publication of the Arthroscopy Association of North America and the International Arthroscopy Association
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Randomized Controlled Trial Clinical Trial
Can local anesthesia be recommended for routine use in elective knee arthroscopy? A comparison between local, spinal, and general anesthesia.
Local anesthesia (LA) for outpatient knee arthroscopy is not a standard procedure at most hospitals. To evaluate the LA technique for knee arthroscopy on medically healthy patients, this study compared 3 anesthesia techniques. Four hundred patients were randomized to either local (n = 200), general (n = 100), or spinal (n = 100) anesthesia. ⋯ Thus, this study shows that elective knee arthroscopy can be performed under local anesthesia in 92% of the patients from a technical point of view. Excluding patients who do not choose local anesthesia and those who have hypertrophic synovitis preoperatively, knee arthroscopies can be performed as safely and effectively under local anesthesia as under any other form of anesthesia. For most patients, local anesthesia can be recommended as the standard procedure for outpatient knee arthroscopy.