Application of cryoanalgesia for accelerated rehabilitation after total knee arthroplasty: review

Abstract

Cryoanalgesia is a modern and increasingly popular method of treating acute and chronic pain. This method involves percutaneous injection of a cryoprobe exposed to extremely low temperatures to disrupt nerves. This review is an attempt to summarize and evaluate the available data on the benefits and safety of cryoneurolysis as a method of perioperative analgesia in total knee replacement (TEC), to answer the question whether the perioperative use of cryoanalgesia really contributes to accelerated rehabilitation of patients after TEC. The authors conducted a search for publications in PubMed (Medline) and eLibrary databases.Ru, Google Scholar, Springer Library, Cochrane Library, Wiley Online Library for the period from 2014 to 2024, 15 articles on the use of cryoanalgesia in TEC were found and analyzed. The data obtained were summarized and interpreted. Based on the results of the analysis, the authors of the review concluded that cryoanalgesia is a promising method for providing long-term perioperative pain control as part of multimodal analgesia schemes. Early rehabilitation of the patient after surgery may be a clinically significant indicator in favor of cryoneurolysis. However, the significant risk of systematic error and clinical heterogeneity of the existing literature studying this problem precludes the possibility of reliable quantification of any performance indicators presented in the existing literature. Future research should provide transparent, unbiased reporting on treatment parameters and outcomes to improve scientific reproducibility.