Abstract
This study was performed to compare the efficacy, safety, and cost-effectiveness of outpatient local anesthesia and inpatient spinal anesthesia when performing knee arthroscopy.
The outpatient local anesthesia had some benefits: short durations of operative time and anesthetic time, few complications, lower cost. However it had a time limitation of effective anesthesia, difficulty in case of bleeding, and rarely, poor control of pain.
The indications of outpatient knee arthroscopy were partial resection of the meniscus, biopsy of the synovium, cartilage debridement, removal of a joint mouse, and resection of the plica.
