Femoral nerve block for TKA

Hi Everyone,

I was wondering what opinions people had towards using a femoral nerve block with TKA patients. The institution I work in uses them and it is generally impossible to mob the patients safely until a few hours after it has been removed, which is usually the pm of POD#2.

Does anyone else have experience with this patient group?
If so, when does the FNB come out and what patient types are able to mob with it still in? (i.e male, female, age etc).
Do you think the FNB has an advantage over other pain medication?
I'm just trying to get an idea of the various pro and cons of the system from other institutions.

Thanks

What do u mean by TKA and FNB

Hi,

TKA is total knee arthroplasty and FNB is femoral nerve block.
Hope that helps.

We use karokane as a FNB, the proproceptive feed back is diminished thus making the patient unsafe during mobilization. A knee immobilizer is used straight away and the patient is encouraged to lock the knee by flexing the hip during stance phase. seems to work quite well.
mike