Aim and Background: Femoral nerve block is the common method for controlling pain after knee surgery, but it is not the only knee nerve and so always does not provide successful block. Another innervation of the knee is from obturator nerve.
Materials and Methods: In this double-blind study, 60 patients whom have undergone elective arthroscopic knee surgery randomly divided into 2 groups of equal number; The femoral nerve block group and obturator nerve block group that. Then after the block patients were evaluated for pain with VAS. Also satisfaction scale was inquired [based on the excellent (1), good (2) moderate (3) and dissatisfied (4)]. Data was analyzed with SPSS 20 software.
Findings: Pain was measured at rest in the femoral block, which at all hours showed less scores than obturator block except for measuring at 24 hours. And at 0, 3 and 6 hours after block this difference was statistically significant (at time 0 P value = 0.048 and at 3 and 6 < 0.001). Femoral block group in 24 hours after block compared to the obturator block group showed better satisfaction scores, although this difference wasn’t statistically significant (P value = 0.034).
Conclusion: The study showed that patients undergoing femoral nerve block have less pain and greater satisfaction scores compared with patients that were under obturator block. Although, VAS in both groups was in an acceptable level of analgesia after surgery.
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