OBJECTIVETo study the effects of transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation on multimodal analgesia after total knee arthroplasty.

METHODSSixty patients diagnosed as knee osteoarthritis and suffered unilateral total knee arthroplasty in the department of orthopedics, Zhejiang Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital from March 2009 to May 2012 were randomly divided into control group and test group, 30 cases in each group. All the patients received celecoxib preoperatively, knee periarticular injection with the drug mixture intraoperatively, and celecoxib and morphine sulfate controlled-release tablets postoperatively. The patients in the test group were also treated with transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation each day after operation. All the patients started doing functional exercises at 24 h after operation. Postoperative visual analogue scales(VAS), passive and active range of motion of knee joint,and complications were recorded.

RESULTSThe VAS scores of test group during postoperative 24 h to 1 week were 3.39 +/- 0.69, 2.79 +/- 0.51, 2.16 +/- 0.52, and 1.07 +/- 0.57 separately,which were lower than 3.80 +/- 0.86, 3.22 +/- 0.58, 2.53 +/- 0.54 and 1.38 +/- 0.52 in the control group. The passive and active range of knee joint motion in the test group during postoperative 24 h to 2 weeks were (30.67 +/- 3.65) degrees, (39.17 +/- 3.96) degrees, (47.83 +/- 4.86) degrees, (93.67 +/- 7.30) degrees, (107.67 +/- 7.51) degrees and (29.83 +/- 5.33) degrees, (78.33 +/- 8.24) degrees, (95.17 +/- 5.94) degrees respectively,which were higher than (28.67 +/- 3.92) degrees, (36.83 +/- 4.25) degrees, (45.17 +/- 5.17) degrees, (89.83 +/- 7.25) degrees, (103.17 +/- 7.37) degrees and (24.17 +/- 10.26) degrees, (73.83 +/- 9.07) degrees, (91.33 +/- 7.42) degrees in the control group. In the test group, 19 patients had ring-shaped haemostasis impression to some extent in the skin of knee joint to different degree, and 5 patients had blister formation.

CONCLUSIONIt is meaningful to apply transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation for treating multimodal analgesia after total knee arthroplasty,which can not only relieve patients' postoperative pain, and also promote the rehabilitation of knee function as far as possible.