Long term outcomes

Rapid pain relief

A synergistic effect is seen when VISCOSEAL® is administered with a local anaesthetic. Following arthroscopic shoulder surgery, 58 patients were given either 10 mL VISCOSEAL® plus 10 mL bupivacaine 0.5%, or 20 mL bupivacaine alone. Patients treated with VISCOSEAL® showed improved pain relief. Indeed, among 28 patients who received VISCOSEAL® plus bupivacaine following arthroscopic shoulder surgery, 29% reported no pain 4 h after the operation compared with 0% in the bupivacaine group.⁴⁴

Following arthroscopy, pain relief was greater among patients who received VISCOSEAL® than among those who did not⁴⁴

Reduced analgesia consumption

In the same study, at 4 h post-arthroscopy, 25% of patients who received VISCOSEAL® plus bupivacaine required no further analgesia, whereas all of the patients in the bupivacaine arm required some form of analgesia. Moreover, only 11% of patients treated with VISCOSEAL® plus bupivacaine required opiates compared with 33% of patients who received bupivacaine alone.⁴⁴

Following arthroscopy, patients who received VISCOSEAL® required less analgesia than patients who received bupivacaine alone⁴⁴

Long-lasting benefits

Patients scheduled to undergo arthroscopy for degenerative osteoarthritis of the knee were randomised to VISCOSEAL® (n = 36) or standard treatment (n = 38).45 The relative benefit of VISCOSEAL® on pain when walking remained apparent 1 year after arthroscopy.

VISCOSEAL® reduced pain, when walking 100m, for at least 1 year after arthroscopy⁴⁵

Patients in the VISCOSEAL® arm also gave superior ratings for clinical global impression compared with those in the standard treatment arm.

The percentage of patients who rated their global impression of treatment as 'clearly improved' or 'no complaints' was higher with VISCOSEAL® than with standard treatment⁴⁵