Efecto de ropivacaina y levobupivacaina sobre condrocitos humanos in vitroduración de la bupivacaina intraarticular in vivo

Abstract

Background context: Bupivacaine is a local anesthetic commonly used to relieve or control pain in postoperative intra-articular knee surgery. Bupivacaine has been shown to be chondrotoxic to articular cartilage. Levobupivacaine and ropivacaine are as effective as bupivacaine for intra-articular analgesia and supposedly, less systemic toxicity. The objective of this work is to evaluate the local chondrotoxicity of levobupivacaine and ropivacaine in vitro. Human articular cartilage was harvested from the femoral condyles or tibial plateau of five patients. Cultured chondrocytes isolated from these patients were treated with 0.5% bupivacaine, 0.5% levobupivacaine, 0.5% ropivacaine and saline (control) during different periods (15 minutes, 30 minutes and 1 hour). Twenty-four hours after treatment, chondrocyte viability was measured with use of a LIVE/DEAD kit for cartilage explants using propidium iodide and determination of cell viability by trypan blue exclusion assay.