抄録
The aim of this study was to investigate whether periarticular injection of high concentration lidocaine could attenuate chronic pain existing in the medial compartmental osteoarthritic knee in the elderly.
Twenty patients who had tenderness and pain during walking at the medial compartment of degenerative femorotibial joint for more than 6 months were examined in this study. The mean age of the participants was 81 years (67-91 years). One-milliliter volume of 10% or 1% lidocaine solution was injected once in each patient, into the periarticular tissue of the most painful tenderness point of the medial femorotibial joint in a double-blind manner. Visual analog scale (VAS) scores for pain during walking, pressure pain thresholds (PPT) for tenderness, and the Japanese Orthopaedic Association(JOA) scores for knee osteoarthritis recorded before (controls), at 2 weeks and 4 weeks after the injection, and at the final follow-up (mean; 10 months, range; 9-12 months) were analyzed.
VAS scores were significantly lower than control scores throughout the 4 weeks after injection of 10% lidocaine. PPT for tenderness was significantly higher than the controls 2 weeks after the injection of 10% lidocaine. At the final follow-up, VAS scores and JOA scores were significantly improved in the 10% lidocaine group. In contrast, there were no significant differences in any of the scores at the three timepoints after the injection of 1% lidocaine.
These results suggest that the periarticular injection of 10% lidocaine at the medial compartment of the knee joint produces more effective and long-term analgesia for chronic pain associated with osteoarthritis of the knee compared with the injection of 1% lidocaine.
