The Comparison of Local Infiltration Analgesia with Peripheral Nerve Block following Total Knee Arthroplasty (TKA): A Systematic Review with Meta-Analysis

Total knee arthroplasty (TKA) is usually associated with severe post-operative pain, which can prevent rehabilitation of patients’ knee function and influence the satisfaction of surgery. Local infiltration analgesia (LIA) is a method that has been applied in clinical practice recently. However, the clinical use of this method is still under discussion. In this paper, we systematically reviewed randomized clinical trails (RCTs) comparing LIA with peripheral nerve block (PNB) to verify the efficacy and safety of LIA. During the analysis, we strictly filtered papers and chose ones that had fewer disturbance variables. We also analyzed the heterogeneity. We conclude that when compared with PNB, pain control with LIA is at least comparable.