Introduction:

Spinal anesthesia (SA) and sciatic-femoral nerve block are the most widely used anesthesia techniques for knee arthroscopy; however, there is still some controversy with regard to which anesthetic procedure offers improved safety, better pain control, and higher patient satisfaction.

Objective:

To assess the effectiveness of exclusive SA with bupivacaine versus sciatic-femoral nerve block, regardless of the drug, during the postoperative period of patients having undergone knee arthroscopy, through a systematic review of the scientific literature.

Methods:

A search of Randomized Clinical Trials was conducted in a number of databases including Ovid, Cochrane, Embase, Lilacs, Open Grey, ClinicalTrials.gov, and academic Google. The snowball technique was also used to identify additional trials. The design of the search strategy included Boolean operators and considered studies in English, Spanish, and Portuguese, with no date restrictions. The information is presented in narrative form.

Results:

The search identified 478 studies, of which 3 met the eligibility criteria. The effectiveness was evaluated based on total anesthesia time and rescue analgesia. Safety was evaluated with heart rate monitoring and time to first micturition. Patient satisfaction was identified through surveys to measure the acceptance of the anesthetic technique.

Conclusion:

SA is effective as assessed based on the motor-sensory blockade effect and pain control, but its adverse events shall be taken into consideration when making a decision. The anesthetic techniques of the peripheral sciatic-femoral nerve block present less undesirable side effects than spinal analgesia and provide better postoperative pain control.

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