Revision Total Knee Arthroplasty Does Not Increase PACU Utilization

The hospital records of 232 consecutive cases of patients undergoing primary and revision total knee arthroplasty were analyzed to determine differences in operating room time, postanesthesia care unit time, operating room narcotic usage, and postanesthesia care unit narcotic usage between the two groups. The average operating room time for a surgeon performing revision total knee arthroplasty on a patient was greater than that for a primary total knee arthroplasty. However, there was no difference in average postanesthesia care unit time nor operating room and postanesthesia care unit narcotic usage. When stratified to anesthetic type and perioperative pain intervention, there was no difference in any of the measured parameters between the primary and revision groups. Thus, even with longer operating times, a patient undergoing revision total knee arthroplasty did not utilize more postanesthesia care unit time, nor more perioperative narcotics, than a patient undergoing primary total knee arthroplasty.

Level of Evidence: Therapeutic study, Level III (retrospective comparative study). See the Guidelines for Authors for a complete description of levels of evidence.