Placement of closed suction drains after total knee arthroplasty is an age-old practice; however, benefits and disadvantages of this procedure remain disputable in various studies. Although there is no established evidence to support the use of drains in total knee arthroplasty (TKA), they are thought to reduce the formation of a haematoma and the incidence of deep infection. The aim of the study was to assess the need for drainage after total knee arthroplasty (TKA). This study was conducted at tertiary care hospital, Nizambad after obtaining permission from the hospital ethics committee. This includes two groups of patients each 30 of both sexes, undergoing total knee arthroplasty. In control group drains were placed and in study group there was no drain. TKA was performed in most of osteoarthritis patients and few were suffering with rheumatoid arthritis. In this study noted significant average reduction of haemoglobin and haematocrit in drained patients on the first postoperative day.  Most of patients in the study group required a change of dressing in the first 24 h and had ecchymosis when compared to the control group. There was a statistically significant difference in the duration of hospital stay with the control group requiring a longer stay in the hospital. The visual analog score was higher in control group than in study group, observed differences in the mean VAS values between both groups but these values were not significant. This concludes that there were benefits in terms of lower analgesic intake, lower blood loss on the first postoperative day and lower need for dressing reinforcement, but increase in hospital stay.

Keywords: Total knee arthroplasty, drains, hematoma, analgesics, VAS score.

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Dr Pramod Kumar. S

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