Emergency. 2017; 5 (1): e54 OR I G I N A L RE S E A RC H Nerve Stimulator versus Ultrasound-Guided Femoral Nerve Block; a Randomized Clinical Trial Arash Forouzan1, Kambiz Masoumi1∗, Hassan Motamed1, Seyed Mohammad Reza Gousheh2, Akram Rohani1 1. Department of Emergency Medicine, Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences, Ahvaz, Iran. 2. Department of Anesthesiology, Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences, Ahvaz, Iran. Received: December 2016; Accepted: January 2017; Published online: 18 January 2017 Abstract: Introduction: Pain control is the most important issue in emergency department management of patients with femoral bone fractures. The present study aimed to compare the procedural features of ultrasonography and nerve stimulator guided femoral nerve block in this regard. Methods: In this randomized clinical trial, patients with proximal femoral fractures presenting to emergency department were randomly divided into two groups of ultrasonography or nerve stimulator guided femoral block and compared regarding success rate, procedural time, block time, and need for rescue doses of morphine sulfate, using SPSS 20. Results: 50 patients were ran- domly divided into two groups of 25 (60% male). The mean age of studied patients was 35.14 ± 12.95 years (19 – 69). The two groups were similar regarding age (p= 0.788), sex (p = 0.564), and initial pain severity (p = 0.513). In 2 cases of nerve stimulator guided block, loss of pinprick sensation did not happen within 30 minutes of injec- tion (success rate: 92%; p = 0.490). Ultrasonography guided nerve block cases had significantly lower procedural time (8.06 ± 1.92 vs 13.60 ± 4.56 minutes; p < 0.001) and lower need for rescue doses of opioid (2.68 ± 0.74 vs 5.28 ± 1.88 minutes; p < 0.001). Conclusion: Ultrasonography and nerve stimulator guided femoral block had the same success rate and block duration. However, the ultrasonography guided group had lower procedure time and lower need for rescue doses of morphine sulfate. Therefore, ultrasonography guided femoral block could be considered as an available, safe, rapid, and efficient method for pain management of femoral fracture in emergency department. Keywords: Femoral fractures; ultrasonography, interventional; transcutaneous electric nerve stimulation; pain manage- ment; emergency service, hospital © Copyright (2017) Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences Cite this article as: Forouzan A, Masoumi K, Motamed H, Gousheh SM, Rohani A. Nerve Stimulator versus Ultrasound-Guided Femoral Nerve Block; a Randomized Clinical Trial. Emergency. 2017; 5(1): e54. 1. Introduction F emoral bone fractures are not infrequent and are usu- ally associated with severe pain (1, 2). Pain control is the most important issue in emergency department management of these patients. Different methods of pain management such as administration of intravenous opioids, tranquilizers and muscle relaxants, and even inhaled drugs are introduced for this propose (3, 4). However, allergic re- actions, airway compromise, respiratory depression, and hy- ∗Corresponding Author: Kambiz Masoumi; Emergency Department, Imam Khomeini General Hospital, Azadegan, Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Med- ical Sciences Ahvaz, Iran. Postal code: 6193673166 Tel: 0098 613 2222085; Cellphone: 0098 911 343 9637; Fax: 0098 613 2225763 Email: emda- jums@yahoo.com potension are among the most important complications of the mentioned methods. Regional nerve blocks have shown benefits over the procedural sedation and analgesia (PSA) for pain management in emergency settings (5-8). Regional anesthesia without any important adverse effects on cen- tral nervous system or systemic circulation, could be help- ful in managing pain and decreasing the volume of nar- cotic and opioid usage (1, 9). Anatomic landmarks guided femoral nerve block is an effective method for reducing pain in adults and children referring to emergency departments with femoral fractures (6). However, injection of drug in the femoral artery is the most undesirable complication of this method. Nowadays, nerve stimulator and ultrasonog- raphy guided methods of block have increased the safety level of the procedure (5, 10). Ultrasonography allows physi- cians to observe the nerves directly so that the needle can This open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial 3.0 License (CC BY-NC 3.0). Downloaded from: www.jemerg.com A. Forouzan et al. 2 be kept away from sensitive organs and distribution of re- gional anesthetic can be monitored. Also, using transcuta- neous electric nerve stimulation could be helpful in localiz- ing the nerve and increasing the effectiveness of block (11, 12). However, emergency physicians are more familiar with ultrasonography than nerve stimulator, and ultrasonography as a noninvasive tool is more available in emergency depart- ments. Based on the above mentioned points, the present study aimed to compare the characteristics of ultrasonogra- phy and nerve stimulator guided femoral nerve block in pain management of femoral fractures in emergency department. 2. Methods 2.1. Study design and setting This randomized clinical trial was conducted on patients with proximal femoral fractures (including neck, inter- trochanteric, and proximal shaft fractures), admitted to emergency departments of Imam Khomeini Hospital, Ah- vaz, Iran, from January to December 2015, aiming to com- pare the procedure features of nerve stimulator and ultra- sonography guided femoral nerve block techniques. The protocol of the study was approved by ethical committee of Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences and reg- istered in Iranian registry of clinical trials under number IRCT2015030221289N1. Researchers adhered to all princi- ples of Helsinki declaration and confidentiality of patients’ information during the study period. Informed consent was obtained from the study subjects before enrollment. 2.2. Participants Patients with proximal femoral fractures, aged 18-80 years, referred to emergency department were included. The ex- clusion criteria were hemodynamic instability, loss of con- sciousness, contraindications of receiving regional anesthe- sia or opioid administration (hypersensitivity to any variety of regional anesthetics such as amide and other compounds, systemic or local infections, abnormal neurological examina- tion, and risk of compartment syndrome), opioid addiction, severe pulmonary or heart disease, diabetes, and coagulopa- thy. 2.3. Intervention Eligible patients were randomly divided into two groups of nerve stimulator or ultrasonography guided femoral nerve block, using simple random sampling technique. All pa- tients received 0.1 mg per kg intravenous morphine sulfate before initiation of procedure. A single dose of 10 mL of li- docaine1% was used for regional anesthesia. Nerve stimula- tion was done by a 50 gauge needle (with 20 degrees tip an- gle) using a Pajunk multistim sensor device. The needle was inserted with a 45 degrees angle just inferior and lateral to where the femoral artery crosses the inguinal ligament. At first, the flow rate of device was set at 2.5 mV, and then after an appropriate response from the muscle (quadriceps mus- cle contraction), the flow rate was reduced to 0.4 mV so that the muscle response could still be visible. Ultrasonography guided nerve blocks were done using a high frequency (7 – 12 MHz) linear array probe (The SonoAce-X8 Ultrasound sys- tem -Samsung Medison Co., Ltd., South Korea) in a supine position with totally abducted legs (figure 1 and 2). All pa- tients were under continuous cardiac, pulse rate, respiratory rate, blood pressure, and O2 saturation monitoring during the procedure. Pain severity was measured using visual ana- logue scale (VAS). Considering 30 minutes duration for loss of pinprick sensation (13), in cases with ≥ 3 pain score, 30 min- utes after block, additional rescue doses of morphine sulfate (0.1 mg/kg) were administered. The sensory (pinprick sen- sation) and motor response were measured every 5 minutes during 30 minutes after the injection of lidocaine. Leg exten- sion against gravity and passive hip flexion in 45o were mea- sured for motor nerve block examination. Procedures were done by a trained senior emergency medicine resident under supervision of an emergency medicine specialist. Operators were trained regarding ultrasonography and nerve stimula- tor guided nerve block during an 8 hour educational course and by doing the procedure under supervision of an expert radiologist. 2.4. Data gathering A predesigned checklist consisting of demographic data (age, sex), initial pain severity, procedure time, block duration, success rate, and need for rescue doses of morphine sulfate was used for data gathering. Procedure time was defined as interval between lidocaine injection and loss of pinprick sensation. Also, interval between loss and recovery of pin- prick sensation was considered as block duration. A success- ful block was defined as complete sensory loss in the femoral nerve distribution by 30 minutes. Data gathering was done by a blinded observer. 2.5. Statistical Analysis Considering 1.2 and 0.4 mg rescue doses of morphine sul- fate in the two groups (14), 95% confidence interval, and the power of 80%, the number of samples per arm was es- timated to be 25 cases. Analysis was done using SPSS 20. Data were reported as mean and standard deviation or fre- quency and percentage. T test was used to compare means and chi square or Fisher’s exact test for comparing the cate- gorical variables. P-value <0.05 was considered as significant. This open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial 3.0 License (CC BY-NC 3.0). Downloaded from: www.jemerg.com 3 Emergency. 2017; 5 (1): e54 Figure 1: Ultrasonography view of right inguinal structures. Figure 2: Position of ultrasonography probe in inguinal area. 3. Results 50 patients with proximal femur fracture were randomly di- vided into two groups of 25 (60% male). The mean age of studied patients was 35.14 ± 12.95 years (19 – 69). Table 1 compares the baseline characteristics of studied patients. Two groups had the same condition regarding age (p= 0.788), sex (p = 0.564), and initial pain severity (p = 0.513). Loss of pinprick sensation within 30 minutes of injection did not happen in 2 cases of nerve stimulator guided block (suc- cess rate: 92%). The success rate, mean procedure time, block time, and amount of rescue doses of morphine sulfate, which were used, were compared between two groups in ta- ble 2. Ultrasonography guided nerve block cases had signif- icantly lower procedural time (p < 0.001) and lower need for rescue doses of opioid (p < 0.001). 4. Discussion Based on the main findings of the present trial, ultrasonogra- phy and nerve stimulator guided femoral block had the same success rate and block duration. However, the ultrasonogra- phy guided group had lower procedure time and lower need for rescue doses of morphine sulfate. Kumar et al., compar- ing these two techniques for axillary brachial plexus block, also showed the similar success rate (95% versus 93.2; p = 0.35) of both groups (15). In another study by Cataldo et al., the failure rates after 30 minutes in both groups were not significant (16). In consistency with our findings, Tran et al. (17), demonstrated that the procedure time of super- ficial cervical plexus block was lower in the ultrasonogra- phy guided nerve block group (119 vs. 61 seconds, P<0.001). Duration of procedure did not show any difference between the two methods. Kumar et al., (15) showed that the dura- tion of sensory axillary nerve blocks in the ultrasonography guided group was 6.33 minutes versus 6.17 minutes in the nerve stimulation group. Durations of motor block in the ultrasound-guided group and the nerve stimulation group were 23.33 and 23.17 minutes, respectively. Unlike our study, these differences were not statistically significant. A random- This open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial 3.0 License (CC BY-NC 3.0). Downloaded from: www.jemerg.com A. Forouzan et al. 4 Table 1: Comparison of baseline characteristics between studied groups Variable Ultrasonography Nerve stimulator P value Age (year) 35.64 ± 13.29 34.64 ± 12.86 0.788 Sex Male 16 (64) 14 (56) 0.564 Female 9 (36) 11 (44) Pain severity ( VAS)* 8.88 ± 0.72 8.52 ± 2.63 0.513 *VAS: visual analogue scale at the initiation of procedure. Data were presented as mean ± standard deviation or frequency and percentage. Table 2: Comparison of success rate, procedure time, block duration, and amount of morphine sulfate rescue doses between two groups Variable Ultrasonography Nerve stimulator P value Success rate (30 minute) 25 (100) 23 (92) 0.490 Procedure time (minute) 8.06 ± 1.92 13.60 ± 4.56 < 0.001 Block duration (minute) 61.56 ± 16.50 57.64 ± 23.85 0.502 Rescue dose (mg) 2.68 ± 0.74 5.28 ± 1.88 < 0.001 Data were presented as mean ± standard deviation or frequency and percentage. ized clinical trial performed by Perlas et al., comparing the success rate of the sciatic nerve block with ultrasonography and nerve stimulator techniques, showed that the duration of the procedure was similar in both groups (18). Rubin et al., showed that duration of the procedure and the time of on- set for nerve block in the ultrasound-guided group were sig- nificantly lower than the nerve stimulation group (19). In a meta-analysis by Choi et al., reporting seven studies in which opioid consumption was reported, the reduction was men- tioned in the ultrasound-guided method in three studies (20). In the three studies that evaluated the time of onset of anal- gesia, the ultrasonography guided approach was preferred. Oberndorfe et al. (21) showed that the amount of drug ad- ministration for regional anesthesia in the ultrasonography guided group was less than the nerve stimulation group (P <0.001). In contrast, Maalouf et al. showed that the mean amount of oral morphine equivalents used in ultrasonogra- phy and nerve stimulator guided groups were similar (22). It seems that using ultrasonography guided femoral nerve block could be considered as an available, safe, rapid, and ef- ficient method for pain management of patients presenting to emergency department following femoral fracture. 5. Limitation Low sample size and not performing the study in a double blind manner are among the most important limitations of this study. However, data gathering by a blinded observer can decrease the bias. 6. Conclusion Based on the main findings of the present trial, ultrasonogra- phy and nerve stimulator guided femoral block had the same success rate and block duration. However, the ultrasonogra- phy guided group had lower procedure time and lower need for rescue doses of morphine sulfate. 7. Appendix 7.1. Acknowledgements: We gratefully acknowledge the dedicated efforts of the inves- tigators, the coordinators, the volunteer patients who partic- ipated in this study, and the Clinical Research Development Unit (CRDU) of the hospital. 7.2. Author’s contribution: All authors passed four criteria for authorship contribution based on recommendations of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors. 7.3. Funding: This study was financially supported by Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences. 7.4. Conflict of interest: The authors have indicated that they have no conflicts of in- terests regarding the content of this article. References 1. Mutty CE, Jensen EJ, Manka MA, Anders MJ, Bone LB. Femoral nerve block for diaphyseal and distal femoral fractures in the emergency department. J Bone Joint Surg Am. 2007;89(12):2599-603. 2. Christos SC, Chiampas G, Offman R, Rifenburg R. Ultrasound-guided three-in-one nerve block for fe- mur fractures. Western Journal of Emergency Medicine. 2010;11(4). 3. Wathen JE, Gao D, Merritt G, Georgopoulos G, Bat- tan FK. A randomized controlled trial comparing a fas- This open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial 3.0 License (CC BY-NC 3.0). 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Journal of clinical anesthesia. 2012;24(1):44-50. This open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial 3.0 License (CC BY-NC 3.0). Downloaded from: www.jemerg.com Introduction Methods Results Discussion Limitation Conclusion Appendix References