Comparison of intrathecal morphine versus local infiltration analgesia for pain control in total knee and hip arthroplasty

Background: The purpose of this meta-analysis was to comprehensively collect randomized controlled trials (RCTs) to assess the clinical efficacy of intrathecal morphine (ITM) versus local infiltration analgesia (LIA) in the treatment of total knee and hip arthroplasty patients. Methods: Relevant studies were identified from the Embase, PubMed, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, Wanfang, and Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) databases. We also reviewed the references of all identified articles to identify additional studies. For each study, we assessed the risk ratio (RR), weighted mean difference (WMD), and corresponding 95% confidence interval (95% CI) to synthesize outcomes. Meta-analysis was performed with Stata 12.0 software. Results: We included 13 studies with 942 patients for meta-analysis. LIA significantly decreased the pain value with rest or mobilization until 72 hours (P