Peri-articular Steroid Injection in Total Knee Arthroplasty: A Prospective, Double Blinded, Randomized Controlled Trial

Total knee arthroplasty is a painful operation. Peri-articular local anesthetic injections reduce post-operative pain and assist recovery. It is inconclusive whether intra-operative injections of peri-articular corticosteroids are of benefit. Therefore our clinical question was: in patients with osteoarthritis who are undergoing TKA, does the addition of high or low dose corticosteroid to peri-articular injections of local anesthetic and adrenaline improve post-operative pain and range of motion? We performed a prospective, double-blinded, randomized controlled trial of two different doses of triamcinolone acetate (N = 42 in each group) added to local anesthetic in TKA for osteoarthritis. There were no significant differences in pain scores or ROM between the control and corticosteroid groups. Differences in secondary outcomes were also non-significant. Peri-articular corticosteroids do not appear to be of benefit in TKA.