Pre-operative and postoperative analgesia in total hip arthroplasty (THA) involves multimodal analgesia using differing classes of drugs and varying introductions of these agents. Postoperative opioid-related events can slow recovery and increase patients' length of stay. Long-acting local anesthetics can reduce early postoperative pain at the surgical site, potentiating a decrease of opioid intervention needed postoperatively. Decreasing opioid use while maintaining adequate pain control could reduce opioid-related events, increase patient time to first ambulation and decrease length of stay. The purpose of this study was to compare liposomal bupivacaine to bupivacaine for postoperative analgesia. Between November 2012 and February 2013, 57 consecutive patients that underwent THA and hip resurfacing received either an intraoperative injection of liposomal bupivacaine or bupivacaine alone. All patients received a combination of medications prior to the procedure including celecoxib 400 mg by mouth, pregabalin 75 mg by mouth and 1gm of intravenous acetaminophen. The study group received 20 cc of liposomal bupivacaine, combined with 40 cc 0.25% bupivacaine with epinephrine and 20 cc of normal saline. The control group received 60 ml of 0.25% bupivacaine with epinephrine. Data was prospectively collected including average visual analog pain scale (VAS), opioid consumption, time to first ambulation, hospital length of stay measured by days, and post-operative opioid-related adverse drug events.Background
Methods
