Ultrasound Guided Serratus Anterior Plane Block in ED Patients With Rib Fractures

February 14, 2026 updated by: Leland Perice, Rhode Island Hospital

Ultrasound Guided Serratus Anterior Plane Block in ED Patients With Rib Fractures,

The goal of this clinical trial is to test the effectiveness of the Serratus Anterior Plane Block in patients with rib fractures. The main questions it aims to answer are:

  • Determine if UG-SAPB results in an improved pain, incentive spirometry, and cough ability (PIC) score when compared to usual care over the first five hours.
  • Evaluate if UG-SAPB results in fewer opioid medications administered when compared to usual care over the first 24 hours.

Participants will undergo the Serratus Anterior Plane. Researchers will compare this to usual care to see if this intervention improves pulmonary function and reduces opioid requirements for ED patients with rib fractures.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

40

Phase

  • Early Phase 1

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
    • Rhode Island
      • Providence, Rhode Island, United States, 02903
        • Rhode Island Hospital

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

  • Adult
  • Older Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Radiology confirmed anterior or lateral rib fractures either on X-ray or chest computed tomography CT
  • pain score of 5/10.
  • Patients must be able to verbalize how much pain they are having on an 11-point Numeric Rating Pain Scale
  • perform an incentive spirometry and be able to cough on command

Exclusion Criteria:

  • isolated rib fractures that do not include ribs T3-T9
  • penetrating trauma, pregnancy
  • requiring immediate surgical or procedural intervention
  • known allergy to amide-type local anesthetics
  • have a painful distracting injury

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
No Intervention: Control
Usual care. No changes made or recommended to patients randomized to the control arm.
Experimental: Intervention arm (Undergoes SAPB)
Patients randomized to this arm will receive the Serratus Anterior Plane block.
Procedure: Serratus Anterior Plane Block
Patients who undergo randomization to the intervention arm will undergo the Serratus Anterior Plane Block.
Drug: Ropivacaine injection
For the Serratus Anterior Plane Block, Ropivacaine will be used as the anesthetic.
Other Names:
  • Ropivacaine

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
PIC Score
Time Frame: 5 hours
Determine if the SAPB results in an improved pain, incentive spirometry, and cough ability (PIC) score when compared to usual care over the first five hours. The PIC score is a scoring system that can be measured serially in patients with rib fractures to assess pulmonary function and to prognosticate clinical outcomes.
5 hours

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Total oral morphine equivalents over the first 24 hours
Time Frame: 24 hours
Evaluate if UG-SAPB results in fewer opioid medications administered when compared to usual care over the first 24 hours.
24 hours

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Sponsor

Rhode Island Hospital

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 (Actual)

July 1, 2024

Primary Completion (Actual)

December 1, 2025

Study Completion (Actual)

December 1, 2025

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

March 1, 2024

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

March 6, 2024

First Posted (Actual)

March 7, 2024

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

February 18, 2026

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

February 14, 2026

Last Verified

February 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • RE2022-0000000349 (Other Grant/Funding Number: Society of Academic Emergency Medicine)

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

UNDECIDED

IPD Plan Description

Undecided at this point as to where and how IPD will be shared for this pilot study.

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

Yes

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

product manufactured in and exported from the U.S.

No

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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