KNEE
The United States government has passed the No Pain Act which takes affect in January 2025. They are focused on interventions and non-opioid medications to reduce pain for all patients. The bipartisan and bicameral NOPAIN Act was designed to increase patient and provider access to non-opioid pain management options by removing the barriers associated with reimbursement for the Medicare population.
Luckily, because of standardized procedures like total joint replacement, we have been working on this for many years prior. We utilize preop anti-inflammatory medicines and postoperatively limit narcotics while using anesthesia regional nerve blocks to help us. A long acting liposomal ppi trade name Exparel has been utilized and will continue to improve postoperative pain starting next year.
A new procedure called Iovera uses cryo-ablation, which is a freezing technique to freeze some of the nerves around sensation specifically for the knee. This could significantly reduce patients pain burden after the procedure. The goal is to perform this procedure a week or two before a knee replacement and it hopefully lasts about three months afterwards. This would aid in patients improving mobility in therapy in the early postoperative period.
At Ortho, Rhode Island, we have started utilizing this procedure in select patients and continue to grow the opportunity. Please inquire if you would like to hear more about this Innovative technique.
