Pain Control With Total Knee Replacement

Pain Control With Total Knee Replacement: Does Gabapentin Affect Narcotic Usage and Functional Outcome? A Randomized Controlled Trial.

The purpose of this project is to study the effects of gabapentin on pain control in the perioperative and post-operative period of total knee arthroplasty.

Being able to understand and better control pain in patients undergoing total knee arthroplasty will help in many different areas of medicine. Gabapentin is one pain control modality that has been used by many different orthopaedic surgeons with excellent retrospective results. Gabapentin, however, has never been studied, to the investigators knowledge, in a prospective randomized fashion in the United States for total knee arthroplasty. This study will be the first of its kind to truly compare the effects of gabapentin, a drug that has been proven safe in many other areas of medicine, with placebo for total knee arthroplasty by analyzing post-operative narcotic usage, function and sleep quality.

Inclusion Criteria:

• • Age > 25 years old

  • Primary osteoarthritis of the knee
  • Must be undergoing unilateral total knee arthroplasty
  • Anesthesia assesment score I, II, or III

Exclusion Criteria:

• Severe joint malalignment (defined as varus/valgus angle > 20 deg)

  • Use of gabapentin pre-operatively
  • History of chronic pain (currently under treatment)
  • History of substance abuse
  • Impaired kidney function (defined as creatinine > 1.5)
  • Epilepsy (currently on medication for treatment)
  • Known allergy to Gabapentin
  • Known history of depression or suicidal thoughts and behaviors
  • Anyone who is not a candidate for general anesthesia or any other portion of the investigator's standard of care.