Efficacy of intra-articular ketorolac for pain control in arthroscopic surgeries: a systematic review and meta-analysis

The current systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to synthesize evidence on the efficacy of intra-articular ketorolac for patients undergoing arthroscopic surgeries.

PubMed, Embase, ScienceDirect, and Google Scholar databases were searched for randomized controlled trials assessing the analgesic effect of intra-articular ketorolac for arthroscopic surgery of hip/knee or shoulder joint.

Six studies were included. Two studies were on shoulder arthroscopy, while others were on knee joint. Meta-analysis revealed that patients receiving intra-articular ketorolac had significantly lower pain scores at 2–4 h (MD: − 0.58 95% CI: − 0.88, − 0.19 I² = 49% p = 0.002), 6–8 h (MD: − 0.77 95% CI: − 1.11, − 0.44 I² = 31% p < 0.00001), 12 h (MD: − 0.94 95% CI: − 1.21, − 0.67 I² = 0% p < 0.00001), and 24 h (MD: − 1.28 95% CI: − 1.85, − 0.71 I² = 84% p < 0.00001) as compared to the control group (Certainty of evidence: low-moderate). Analysis of three studies revealed a tendency of reduced analgesic consumption in patients receiving intra-articular ketorolac, but the difference did not reach statistical significance (MD: − 0.53 95% CI: − 1.07, 0.02 I² = 55% p = 0.06).

Preliminary evidence from a limited number of studies indicates that additional intra-articular ketorolac to multimodal analgesia results in reduced pain scores up to 24 h after arthroscopic surgery. The clinical relevance of small changes in pain scores is debatable. Also, scarce data suggest that consumption of analgesics may not be reduced with intra-articular ketorolac. Since pain scores can be influenced by the primary diagnosis and dose of ketorolac, the results should be interpreted with caution. The certainty of the evidence is low-moderate. There is a need for future RCTs to further strengthen current evidence.