Arthroscopy Under Local Anaesthesia : A Comparative Study With General And Spinal Anaesthesia

A study was conducted in 60 patients to find out the feasibility, efficacy and safety of a local anesthesia technique (n=20) for knee-arthroscopy and compared it with general (n=20) and spinal (n=20) anaesthesia. Local anaesthetic technique consisted of local infiltration and continuous irrigation into the knee joint with 0.5% xylocine with adrenaline (1.25 microgram/ml). For general anaesthesia a conventional nitrous oxide, oxygen, narcotic and relaxant technique was used. For spinal anaesthesia we used 24G spinal needle and hyperbaric 0.5% Bupivacaine. The study showed that 80% patients under local anaesthesia were pain free. No intraoperative and postoperative complications or signs and symptoms of xylocaine toxicity were found in local anaesthesia group. Hospital stay was also short (1.35+0.47 hr). 25% patients of general anaesthesia group had postoperative complications but the intraoperative period was uneventful. Spinal anaesthesia group had maximum intraoperative (60%) and postoperative (45%) complications and had longest duration of hospital stay (30+12.86 hr). Therefore the study concludes that knee arthroscopy under local anaesthesia is a safe, effective and acceptable technique for ambulatory outpatients, with minimal morbidity, hospital stay and cost.