Anesthesiology News reports on the findings of a retrospective analysis of pain outcomes in patients undergoing total knee arthroplasty before and after implementation of iPACK [Infiltration between the Popliteal Artery and Capsule of the Knee] at a single institution, which demonstrated patients’ lowest reported pain on the day of surgery was among those receiving adductor canal plus iPACK blocks compared to an adductor canal block alone.

Anesthesiology News spoke to David H. Kim, MD, anesthesiologist at HSS, who was not involved with the study, to provide commentary on the findings. HSS has included the iPACK block as a standard of care for total knee arthroplasty and unicompartmental knee arthroplasty pathways based on evidence of improved analgesia. “We are convinced that the iPACK block has added value to our already robust multimodal total knee arthroplasty pathway,” said Dr. Kim. “What we have found in our prospective randomized controlled trial is that the iPACK block has significantly lowered pain on ambulation—not just at rest—and lowered opioid consumption up to 24 hours,” he explained.

Dr. Kim added, “Facilitating mobility by augmenting analgesia via motor-sparing blocks has remained a significant clinical goal among our surgeons and anesthesiologists, especially when early ambulation has been linked to shorter length of stay.” He concluded, “However, we do feel that it is always good to replicate our findings in different settings to make sure iPACK adds value.”

Read the article at Anesthesiologynews.com.