Comparison of Ultrasound Guided Femoral Nerve Block and Systemic Intravenous Analgesia for Pain Relief in Traumatic Shaft Femur Fractures

Background: Aims and USG guided femoral nerve block is useful technique for pain relief in fracture shaft femur. Objective: 1) To study whether USG guided femoral nerve block is more effective in pain management of femoral shaft fractures than systemic intravenous analgesia. 2) To study the duration of action of femoral nerve block for pain relief in femoral shaft fractures. 100 patients of ASA I and II, aged 20-50 years, with traumatic fracture Materials and Methods: femur were randomly allocated to group FNB (n-50, USG guided femoral nerve block using 10 ml 0.75% Ropicvacaine) and group DICLO (n-50, systemic analgesia using Inj. Diclofenac 75 mg.) Each case was subsequently followed up for onset and total duration of analgesia till 6 hours postoperatively. Efficacy in both groups was assessed by visual analogue scale. There is no significant difference in onset of action between both the groups. The duration Results and Summary: of action in group FNB was more (5.58±1.08 hrs) than group DICLO (3.40±1.20 hrs). Visual analogue score showed significant pain reduction in group FNB after 15 minutes and also at 6hr(p=0.001) in comparison with group DICLO. Conclusion: Femoral nerve block is safe, simple and more efficacious procedure in comparison to systemic IV analgesia for acute pain management in patients with fracture shaft femur.