Morrow B C, Milligan K R, Murthy B V
Department of Anaesthetics, Queen's University, Belfast, Northern Ireland.
Anaesthesia. 1995 May;50(5):461-3. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2044.1995.tb06006.x.
Sixty patients presenting for day-case arthroscopy of the knee under general anaesthesia were studied. Patients were randomly allocated to receive, in addition to intramuscular piroxicam 20 mg, either bupivacaine 0.25% 20 ml applied locally to the knee at the end of the procedure (n = 30) or no further intra-operative analgesia (n = 30). Visual analogue pain scores were significantly lower at 1, 2 and 4 h postoperatively in the bupivacaine group (p < 0.05). A higher proportion of patients in the piroxicam-only group required supplemental analgesia before discharge from hospital. The combination of piroxicam and bupivacaine provided superior analgesia to piroxicam alone.
