Information for Patients

Continuous femoral nerve block (CFNB) has proven to be a highly effective modality for controlling the postoperative pain associated with knee surgery. With CFNB, pain can be controlled for several days following surgery by means of a catheter that delivers local anesthetic to the femoral nerve. A pioneering study performed in the late 1990s demonstrated that pain control with CFNB was superior to that of intravenous morphine sulfate administered by patient-controlled analgesia and equally as effective as epidural analgesia. However, CFNB had fewer unwanted side effects and complications than either patient-controlled analgesia with morphine sulfate or epidural analgesia. This article reviews the historical development, applied anatomy, indications, pharmaceutical options, and technique for CFNB.