Regional Blocks for Lateral Condyle Fractures

• Status: Recruiting
• Trial end date: 2024-03-07
• Target enrollment: 0
• Participant gender: All

Summary

The purpose of this study is to investigate the post-operative pain control in pediatric patients with closed lateral condyle fractures who undergo open reduction and percutaneous pinning. Patients will be randomized into one of two groups. Group 1 will receive an infraclavicular nerve block to the affected extremity by a fellowship trained pediatric anesthesiologist prior to surgery. Group 2 will undergo the Orthopaedic Institute of Children's (OIC) standard preoperative protocol. Post-operative pain management will be the same for both groups per standard protocol. Pain level will be assessed post-operatively using the Wong-Baker FACES scale and parents will be asked to fill out a questionnaire regarding their satisfaction with the surgery and pain control. Parents will also fill out a medication log until the patient no longer requires pain medication. All patients in both groups will receive standard oxycodone solution prescriptions post-operatively as per typical protocol. The duration of participation in the study is approximately 1 week and requires 2 visits (time of recruitment at surgery and 1st post-op visit). This study is being conducted in hopes of developing comprehensive pain management protocols to reduce opioid consumption after surgical fixations of displaced lateral condyle fractures if the study can show that patients are more satisfied and require less opioid medication when receiving preoperative regional anesthesia.

• Phase: Phase 4
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers?: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Details

• Lead Sponsor: University of California, Los Angeles
• Treatments: Ropivacaine

Criteria

Inclusion Criteria:

• Isolated lateral condyle humerus fracture

• Closed lateral condyle humerus fracture

• Weiss classification type II and III (>2mm displacement) lateral condyle fractures

• Fractures treated with open reduction percutaneous pinning requiring fixation

Exclusion Criteria:

• Open fractures

• Fractures with concomitant vascular or neurologic deficit

• Pathologic fractures

• Those presenting with concomitant injuries

• Swelling requiring post-operative hospitalization for monitoring

• Any known history of allergies to ropivacaine or oxycodone

• Patients with developmental delay that would preclude participation in the visual analog Faces Pain Scale-Revised