Kayla Scott

Capdevila​, ​Xavier ​& ​Barthelet​ ,​Yves. (1999). ​Effects of Perioperative Analgesic Technique on

the Surgical Outcome and Duration of Rehabilitation after Major Knee Surgery.

Anesthesiology, 91, 8-15. ​Retrieved from:

anesthesiology.pubs.asahq.org/article.aspx?articleid=1946722

This article studies different types of analgesic, postoperative techniques to reduce pain

after surgery and how that changed the recovery success and speed. The different techniques

were different postoperative continuous epidural infusion, continuous femoral block, or

intravenous patient-controlled morphine for 72 hours after surgery. The topic arose out of

the fact that continuous motion after knee surgery, like ACL surgery, optimizes the functional

prognosis but causes severe pain, so the purpose was to decrease pain levels but have the same

success as continuous motion. 56 patients were used in the study, all observed for 3 days post

operation than 1-3 months in rehabilitation. The results showed that patients who received

epidural infusion and continuous femoral block performed much better than those patients

treated with morphine. They had range of motion in the 75-80th percentile and stayed in

rehabilitation an average of 7 days less, concluding epidural infusion and continuous femoral

block were the best ways to treat a patient without pain.

This article has extreme authority, coverage, and accuracy along with many other things.

Being in an academic journal, the article is vetted for the reader by professional after

professional, but beyond that the authors are two experts in the field they are studying.

Capdevila, the main author and scientist performing the study, is a specialist in pain medicine

and head of anesthesiology at French Institute of Health and Medical Research, with a PhD and a
MD from Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Montpellier, a medical university in France, all

found from a simple google search. This article has deep but broad coverage,making sure to

explain methods, patients, results, and why the results were to happen. The author explains all

pain results and how that was tested, and explains all results thoroughly, going into detail of the

side effects of each different way of pain free treatment. Although the article is from 18 years

ago, not meeting the expected medical article time requirement, it is still extremely reliable

because it explains things still being used and researched today. For example, it is now inferred

patients are not to be overbearing in motion and weight bearing the first few days after the

surgery to reduce the pain brought up in this article. This pain is still reduced today with

morphine, but this article suggests it should be done differently, something still new and debated

by researchers today.. The article can also be corroborated with many others, shown by listing

many articles at the end of the study for further research and resources. For example, studies like

“The Study of Perioperative Ischemia Research Group” and “The value of 'multimodal' or

'balanced analgesia' in postoperative pain treatment” are listed as references, corroborating the

results in this study. Overall, the paper is written at a collegiate academic level, which makes it

sophisticated due to its common audience of students of medicine and doctors performing knee

surgeries, allowing the public's doctors to be more knowledgeable, overall helping the patients

with their pain and recovery.