Emergency Physician-performed Ultrasound-guided Femoral Nerve Blocks in Patients With Hip Fractures.

Ultrasound-Guided Femoral Nerve Block

In this prospective study, emergency physicians perform ultrasound-guided femoral nerve block for patients with hip fractures. We compare the effectiveness of analgesia and patient satisfaction of ultrasound-guided femoral nerve block with liberal use of the pain medicine in the emergency department. The primary outcome is the assessment of time to relief the pain with fewer adverse effects and less rescue pain medication use. The secondary outcome is patient satisfaction and adverse effects for different method of pain control.

Study Overview

• Status: Recruiting
• Conditions: Hip Fractures
• Intervention / Treatment: Procedure: ultrasound-guided femoral nerve block; Drug: Intravenous or intramuscular pain medication

Detailed Description

The aim of this study is to compare the effectiveness of ultrasound-guided femoral nerve blocks performed by emergency physicians for pain control in the emergency department with traditional pain medicine.

This study is a prospective before-and-after design. The enrollees are 20-year-old and older adult patients with hip fractures. We use numerical rating scale using a 0-10 scale to assess pain severity at the different time frame after giving pain medicine. The scale zero means "no pain" and scale 10 means "the worst pain imaginable".

The primary outcome is assessed by the reduction of pain scale which are taken on a numeric rating scale every 30 minutes before and after pain management. The secondary outcome compares complications, adverse effects and patient satisfaction for different method of pain control.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Estimated): 80
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

• Study Contact: Name: YILIN LEE; Phone Number: +886972655633; Email: leeatntuh@gmail.com

Study Locations

• Taiwan
  • Yunlin County
    • Douliu, Yunlin County, Taiwan, 640
      • Recruiting
      • NTUH Yunlin Branch
      • Contact: YILIN LEE; Phone Number: +886972655633; Email: leeatntuh@gmail.com

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Adult; Older Adult
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Patients older than 20-year-old with hip fractures
• Stay in the emergency department for at lease two hours

Exclusion Criteria:

• hemodynamic unstable
• major trauma in addition to hip fractures
• the use of any pain management before the arrival of emergency department
• chronic opioid use
• inability to understood the numerical rating scale after instruction
• allergy to local anesthetics
• coagulopathy
• injection site infection

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Treatment
• Allocation: Non-Randomized
• Interventional Model: Sequential Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Active Comparator: Ultrasound-guided femoral nerve block; Patients with hip fractures had underwent Ultrasound-guided femoral nerve block performed by emergency physicians.	Procedure: ultrasound-guided femoral nerve block; The local analgesia is injected and infiltrated around the femoral nerve under ultrasound guidance.
Sham Comparator: The liberal use of pain medication; Patients with hip fractures had given intravenous or intramuscular opioids or NSAID at the emergency department.	Drug: Intravenous or intramuscular pain medication; Intravenous or intramuscular pain medication is given for patients with hip fracture.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
a short time of pain relief	The numerical pain score from 0 to 10 is used to assess pain severity and the scale 0 means no pain and the scale 10 means the worst pain imaginable. The pain score assessed for the leg with hip fracture at rest and with movement will be recorded after different pain medicine and the reduction of pain score at different time frame will be evaluated. The more reduction of pain score, the better.	2 hours

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Adverse effects	Any adverse effects of different pain medication	two hours
Patient satisfaction	The difference of patient satisfaction between ultrasound-guided femoral nerve block and the liberal use of pain medication	two hours
Complications of ultrasound-guided femoral nerve block	Any complications of ultrasound-guided femoral nerve block	two hours and one week after ultrasound-guided femoral nerve block or after hospital discharge

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: National Taiwan University Hospital

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): July 3, 2023
• Primary Completion (Actual): March 5, 2025
• Study Completion (Estimated): December 30, 2025

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: July 23, 2023
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: July 23, 2023
• First Posted (Actual): August 1, 2023

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): August 5, 2025
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: July 31, 2025
• Last Verified: June 1, 2025

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: Ultrasound-guided femoral nerve block
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Wounds and Injuries; Leg Injuries; Fractures, Bone; Femoral Fractures; Hip Injuries; Hip Fractures; Physiological Effects of Drugs; Peripheral Nervous System Agents; Sensory System Agents; Analgesics
• Other Study ID Numbers: 202211021RINB

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No
• product manufactured in and exported from the U.S.: No