Sciatic nerve block or not for outpatient total knee arthroplasty? Study protocol for a randomized controlled trial

Background The number of patients operated on for total knee arthroplasty (TKA) is growing worldwide. Outpatient surgery is defined by a length of stay (LOS) in the hospital of less than 12 h. This can be limited for TKA, with the efficient management of pain and perioperative complications, such as blood loss, affecting a safe hospital discharge. Outpatient TKA with a suitable protocol, including multimodal measures, could improve the success rate of this procedure. Among the main measures, single-shot sciatic nerve block in association with continuous femoral nerve block for pain control needs to be evaluated in outpatient TKA. Furthermore, to promote the safety of the postoperative period and to accelerate rehabilitation, patients who undergo ambulatory TKA could be discharged to a rehabilitation center on the day of surgery to screen adverse events and to optimize the rehabilitation process. This study is designed to assess the benefits of sciatic nerve block in postoperative pain relief for outpatient TKA.