Comparative Study of Spinal and Local Anesthesia with Propofol Infusion for Knee Arthroscopy

Spinal anesthesia for knee arthroscopy is a well-documented and safe procedure. However, some complications and higher costs have been reported. Also, many orthopaedic surgeons are reluctant to use local anesthesia for fear of having to convert to general anesthesia due to inadequate pain control. The purpose of this study is to compare local with spinal anesthesia in two groups of patients submitted to knee arthroscopy. Sixty-five patients were divided in two groups; based on the anesthesia method used, and submitted to the same surgical routine and postoperative analgesia protocol. They were evaluated for analgesia, level of postoperative pain, and level of satisfaction with the type of anesthetic. The two groups did not present any significant differences in relation to perioperative analgesia and pain on the first postoperative day, neither was there any difference in relation to emotional state. However, there was a significant difference in terms of acceptance of the procedure; 100% said they would accept the procedure again in the local anesthesia group, compared with 60.5% in the spinal anesthesia group; also, 100% in the local anesthesia group said they felt encouraged by the type of anesthesia, compared with 67.7% in the spinal anesthesia group. We can conclude that local anesthesia is similar to spinal anesthesia in almost all the aspects investigated, except in terms of acceptance and patients' level of satisfaction with the procedure. Local anesthesia can be a good alternative to spinal anesthesia, especially in outpatient departments, or when patients have restrictions to traditional models of anesthesia.