Pre-operative Intravenous Steroid in Total Knee Replacement for Pain Relief and Recovery

Summary

Osteoarthritis of the knee is a common and important condition in our society. Despite various anesthetic methods and pain medications, pain after operation still remains as a challenge. Steroids plays a role in decreasing the inflammatory reaction and stress response from surgery. This study is to evaluate the use of an additional steroid injection, on top of usual pain killers and anesthesia, on the effect of pain control and recovery after total knee replacement. 50 subjects will be recruited, half of them will be randomized to receive a single dose of steroid injection before operation while the other half will receive a placebo. All the doctors, patients and physiotherapists are not aware of the allocation. Apart from the steroid or placebo injection, all the other treatment (eg: surgery, medications, rehabilitation protocol etc) will be the same. Doctors and physiotherapists will assess the subjects at 24, 30, 48 hours after surgery and upon discharge for their pain relief and recovery. Any complications will also be documented.

Timeline

Start

2017-06-01

Primary completion

2019-06-01

Completion

2019-06-01

Publications

• Cheng BLY, So EHK, Hui GKM, Yung BPK, Tsui ASK, Wang OKF, Poon MWY, Chan ACM, Wong SHS, Li W, Yip PSC. Pre-operative intravenous steroid improves pain and joint mobility after total knee arthroplasty in Chinese population: a double-blind randomized controlled trial. Eur J Orthop Surg Traumatol. 2019 Oct;29(7):1473-1479. doi: 10.1007/s00590-019-02469-5. Epub 2019 Jun 20.

Drugs

Indications