Saphenous Nerve Block for Partial Meniscectomy

Partial meniscectomy and meniscus repair are two of the most common orthopedic surgery procedures. As these procedures are being increasingly performed in ambulatory surgical centers, there has been a shift towards providing improved analgesia to ensure timely discharge, as well as preventing unwanted pain and side effects. As such, it has become common practice to use an intra-articular injection of local anesthetic to achieve post-operative pain control. However, these effects are short lived, requiring a multimodal approach to analgesia. To date, no optimal pain control strategy has been described for arthroscopic partial meniscectomy or meniscus repair. The purpose of this study is to examine the outcomes of subcutaneous saphenous nerve block with 0.5% ropivacaine at the medial femoral epicondyle/adductor hiatus plus portal 0.5% ropivacaine injection vs portal 0.5% ropivacaine injection alone for patients undergoing arthroscopic partial meniscectomy or meniscus repair.