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P170 Anterior nerves of the knee (ANK) block: a novel motor sparing fascial plane block for analgesia of the knee

rapm · 2025-09-10 · canonical JSON source

5 visible annotations · policy: published · automated confidence ≥ 75.00%

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Please confirm that an ethics committee approval has been applied for or granted: Yes: I’m uploading the Ethics Committee Approval as a PDF file with this abstract submissionBackground and Aims Providing analgesia for the knee is challenging due to complex innervation arising from different nerves. We describe a novel ultrasound-guided fascial plane block technique for analgesia of the knee. The novel method was used in patients suffering from knee osteoarthritis.Methods This report presents a description of the Anterior Nerves of the Knee (ANK) block and application to 28 patients diagnosed with Grade 4 Kellgren-Lawrence knee osteoarthritis (KOA) with severe pain. The study was approved by the institutional Ethics Committee (E-71522473–050.04–340179-38) . The ANK block was performed by a single injection of local anesthetic within the fascial plane between the rectus femoris and vastus muscles ( figure 1). Bupivacaine 0.25% 20 ml was injected. The pain charts of the patients were reviewed and numerical rating pain scores (NRS) were evaluated before block application, 1st hour and 1st month after block. The Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Arthritis Index (WOMAC) scores before blocks and one month after the blocks were evaluated.Results Demographic characteristics of the patients were given in the table 1. The mean pain score before blocks was 7,93 ± 1,18 and significantly decreased to 1,54 ± 1,10 after the blocks (table 2). Mean WOMAC scores before blocks was 69,93 ± 15,02 which was decreased to 42,07 ±14,85 one month after the blocks. No muscle weakness, motor block or block-related complications were observed.Abstract P170 Figure 1The position of the ultrasound probe and ultrasound image during anterior nerves of the knee (ANK) block procedureAbstract P170 Table 1Demographic and clinical characteristics of patients and mean ± SD and median values of age, body mass index and symptom duration of patientsAbstract P170 Table 2Mean ± SD and median values of pain scores and WOMAC index before and after the blocksConclusions The anterior nerves of the knee (ANK) block provided sufficient analgesia in patients with chronic knee pain. The block possibly covers the nerves to vastus lateralis, vastus medalis, vastus intermediate and the anterior branch of the obturator nerve, and terminal branches of the superolateral and superomedial genicular nerves. The ANK block can be suitable for patients having knee pain at anterior region.