The Efficacy of Automated Intermittent Boluses for Continuous Femoral Nerve Block: a Prospective, Randomized Comparison to Continuous Infusions

October 21, 2010 updated by: Medical University of South Carolina
The optimal infusion technique (continuous rate vs. intermittent bolus) for peripheral nerve blocks has not been established. To our knowledge, this is the first study to compare the efficacy of an automated intermittent bolus technique to a continuous rate of infusion of local anesthetic in femoral nerve catheters. We hypothesized that the intermittent bolus technique would provide enhanced analgesia compared to a continuous infusion rate as assessed by intravenous patient-controlled analgesia (IV-PCA) hydromorphone consumption and visual analog scale (VAS) pain scores.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

45

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • United States
    • South Carolina
      • Charleston, South Carolina, United States, 29425
        • Medical University of South Carolina

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

18 years to 80 years (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) physical status 1 through 3
  • elective, primary, unilateral TKA

Exclusion Criteria:

  • patient refusal
  • pregnancy
  • diabetic neuropathy or any other neurologic or neuromuscular disease
  • rheumatoid arthritis
  • current coagulopathy
  • skin infection at needle insertion site for the femoral or sciatic blocks
  • significant renal or hepatic impairment
  • unsuccessful femoral or sciatic block or femoral catheter placement
  • femoral catheter dislodgement after placement
  • inability to understand VAS pain scales
  • inability to use an IV-PCA pump

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Treatment
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: Single

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Active Comparator: Continuous infusion rate
Patients received a continuous infusion of 0.2% ropivacaine at 10.1 mL/hr via their femoral nerve catheter.
Other: Automated intermittent bolus
Automated intermittent bolus delivery method of 0.2% ropivacaine at 5 mL every 30 minutes with a basal infusion of 0.1 mL/hr.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Time Frame
Intravenous patient-controlled analgesia opioid consumption
Time Frame: Cumulative IV-PCA use was recorded until femoral nerve catheter removed on postoperative day 2.
Cumulative IV-PCA use was recorded until femoral nerve catheter removed on postoperative day 2.
Visual analog pain scale score
Time Frame: Preop; Immediately postoperatively in PACU; Postoperative day (POD) 0 at 8pm; POD 1 at 8am, 2pm & 8pm; POD 2 at 8am
Preop; Immediately postoperatively in PACU; Postoperative day (POD) 0 at 8pm; POD 1 at 8am, 2pm & 8pm; POD 2 at 8am

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Time Frame
Hospital length of stay
Visual analog scale patient satisfaction scores
Time Frame: POD 1 at 8am; POD 2 at 8am
POD 1 at 8am; POD 2 at 8am
Incidence of physician administered "rescue" boluses of the femoral nerve catheter

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Medical University of South Carolina

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Larry C. Field, M.D., Department of Anesthesia and Perioperative Medicine, Medical University of South Carolina

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start

April 1, 2009

Primary Completion (Actual)

March 1, 2010

Study Completion (Actual)

April 1, 2010

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

October 21, 2010

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

October 21, 2010

First Posted (Estimate)

October 22, 2010

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimate)

October 22, 2010

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

October 21, 2010

Last Verified

October 1, 2010

More Information

Terms related to this study

Other Study ID Numbers

  • HR 18880

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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