Postoperative Pain Management and Rehabilitation

Abstract

Patients undergo TKA to gain relief from arthritic pain, to regain function and to improve their quality of life. However, the patient needs to deal with significant pain during the early postoperative period after TKA. Postoperative outcome and satisfaction after TKA depend to a large extent on optimal pain control. Suboptimal pain management after TKA has severe consequences. It may not only lead to physical and emotional distress and dissatisfaction in the patient and relatives but often leads to longer hospital stay, delay in functional recovery and non-compliance of patients with rehabilitation programme. Delay in mobilisation due to excessive pain may also put the patient at increased risk for systemic complications such as deep vein thrombosis, pneumonia and thromboembolism or local complications such as residual knee deformity (usually fixed flexion deformity), limited knee ROM (typically flexion beyond 100°) and chronic pain at the surgical site. Therefore, the importance of optimal pain control after TKA cannot be emphasised enough given the consequences.