Letter to the Editor
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2021. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. Dec 26, 2021; 9(36): 11504-11508
Published online Dec 26, 2021. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v9.i36.11504
Advantages and issues of concern regarding approaches to peripheral nerve block for total hip arthroplasty
Marco Crisci, Arturo Cuomo, Cira Antonietta Forte, Sabrina Bimonte, Gennaro Esposito, Maura C Tracey, Marco Cascella
Marco Crisci, Arturo Cuomo, Cira Antonietta Forte, Sabrina Bimonte, Gennaro Esposito, Marco Cascella, Division of Anesthesia and Pain Medicine, Institute Nazionale Tumori-IRCCS-Fondazione Pascale, Napoli 80100, Italy
Maura C Tracey, Scientific Direction, Institute Nazionale Tumori-IRCCS-Fondazione Pascale, Napoli 80100, Italy
Marco Cascella, Department of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology, Faculty of Engineering, University of Napoli Federico II, No. 21 Via Claudio, Napoli 80125, Italy
Author contributions: Crisci M and Cascella M designed research and wrote the letter; Cuomo A and Forte CA performed research; Esposito G, Crisci M and Bimonte S analyzed data; Tracey MC revised the letter.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors have no financial relationships to disclose.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Marco Cascella, MD, Academic Fellow, Professor, Division of Anesthesia and Pain Management, Institute Nazionale Tumori-IRCCS-Fondazione Pascale, No. 53 Via Mariano Semmola, Napoli 80100, Italy. m.cascella@istitutotumori.na.it
Received: May 20, 2021
Peer-review started: May 20, 2021
First decision: October 16, 2021
Revised: October 23, 2021
Accepted: November 29, 2021
Article in press: November 29, 2021
Published online: December 26, 2021
Abstract

In older patients with comorbidities, hip fractures are both an important and debilitating condition. Since multimodal and multidisciplinary perioperative strategies can hasten functional recovery after surgery improving clinical outcomes, the choice of the most effective and safest pathway represents a great challenge. A key point of concern is the anesthetic approach and above all the choice of the locoregional anesthesia combined with general or neuraxial anesthesia.

Keywords: Hip fracture, Multimodal therapy, Enhanced recovery after surgery, Peripheral regional techniques, Regional analgesia techniques

Core Tip: In surgery for repairing hip fractures, often pain is adequately and safely managed through multimodal strategies without the use of regional analgesia techniques. However, especially in the elderly, the use of regional analgesia techniques as a part of a multimodal strategy for limiting systemic analgesics needs to be considered. Further research is warranted to establish the most effective peripheral regional technique.