Ultrasound-guided regional anesthesia for the pain management of elderly patients with hip fractures in the emergency department

We examined the pain-relieving effect of ultrasound-guided regional anesthesia performed by emergency physicians on elderly hip fracture patients. This study is a prospective, non-randomized, case-control study. The subjects were patients older than 65 years who visited the emergency department with a hip fracture. After we obtained informed consent, two emergency physicians performed an ultrasound-guided three-in-one femoral block using 20 mL of 0.5% bupivacaine. The pain score was measured just before regional anesthesia, and 0.25, 0.5, 1, 2, 3, and 4 hours after the procedure. Another group of patients was given multiple doses of morphine to control the pain. We compared the change in pain score and the development of adverse reactions between the two groups. A total of 47 patients were enrolled in this study, of which 25 were given regional anesthesia. Successful pain control (pain score