FASCIA ILIACA COMPARTMENT BLOCK VS INTRAVENOUS FENTANYL AS AN ANALGESIC TECHNIQUE BEFORE POSITIONING FOR SPINAL ANAESTHESIA IN PATIENTS UNDERGOING SURGERY FOR FEMUR FRACTURES- A RANDOMIZED TRIAL

Study objective: Pain arising from femur fractures is of severe nature. Surgery for xation of femoral fractures may be done under spinal anesthesia. We conducted this study to compare the analgesic efcacy of fascia iliaca compartment block (FICB) and intravenous fentanyl (IVF) before positioning for spinal anesthesia. Design: Randomized controlled trial. Setting: Operating room. Patients and interventions: Sixty patients aged 25 to 75 years, with American Society of Anesthesiologists status I to II, undergoing surgery for femur fracture were chosen for the study and randomized into 2 groups. Patients in group FICB received the block with 30 mL of 0.25% ropivacaine 15 minutes before the subarachnoid block. Patients in group IVF received intravenous fentanyl at 1 µg/kg body. Spinal: All the patients received spinal anaesthesia with 0.3mg/kg of 0.5% hyperbaric bupivacaine. Measurements: Preprocedural and postprocedural parameters such as visual analog scale (VAS) scores, sitting angle, quality of positioning, and time to perform the spinal were recorded. Main results: Preprocedural VAS scores were similar in both groups. The "VAS after" was 24.72 ± 15.70 mm in group FICB vs 61.22 ± 18.18 mm in group IVF (P = .01). The drop in VAS scores was signicantly more in the FICB group. Postoperative analgesic requirement was lesser in group FICB. This work is attributed to the Department of Anesthesiology