Wheeless' Textbook of Orthopaedics Main Menu Home Page Intra-articular morphine for pain relief after knee arthroscopy. Postoperative pain was assessed at intervals by a visual analogue scale and the requirement for supplementary analgesia was recorded. Those in the study group had significantly lower pain scores and required less systemic analgesics than those in the control group. Plasma profiles for morphine and its metabolites were assayed and showed that they were too low to produce effective analgesia.
Evidence suggests that analgesia was mediated by local action within the joint.