Acute pain after a surgical procedure may occur secondary to trauma from the procedure itself or from procedure-related complications. Appropriate peri-operative acute pain management is an important phase of patient's recovery since it's under-treatment can lead to adverse outcomes such as: thromboembolic and pulmonary complications, additional time spent in an intensive care unit or hospital, hospital readmission for further pain management, needless suffering, impairment of health-related quality of life, and development of chronic pain. Furthermore, it's over-treatment with opioid medications is associated with an increased risk of thromboembolic, infectious and gastrointestinal complications as well as increased length of hospital stay, cost of care and risk of opioid addiction.~Perioperative administration of intravenous (IV) non steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAID), such as ketorolac, has been shown to effectively decrease opioid requirements and pain levels while demonstrating tolerable side effects. Its use after total knee replacement has been associated with a 27% decrease in the use of morphine. When NSAID is combined with acetaminophen 1000mg every six hours, an additional benefit in terms of improved pain scores on post-operative day three was shown in patients who underwent total hip or knee arthroplasty. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to provide an effective alternative for pain management in Hispanic patients who underwent total knee replacement and evaluate the role of ketorolac and acetaminophen.
An alternate perioperative pain control protocol composed of intravenous ketorolac and oral acetaminophen for patients who underwent total knee replacement was designed with the aim to determine its efficacy when compared to pain control with intravenous morphine and oral oxycodone combined with acetaminophen. In addition, the study will evaluate the differences and similarities in the Hispanic population that could predict protocol efficacy.