Anesthesiology
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Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter Study
Ambulatory continuous posterior lumbar plexus nerve blocks after hip arthroplasty: a dual-center, randomized, triple-masked, placebo-controlled trial.
The authors tested the hypotheses that after hip arthroplasty, ambulation distance is increased and the time required to reach three specific readiness-for-discharge criteria is shorter with a 4-day ambulatory continuous lumbar plexus block (cLPB) than with an overnight cLPB. ⋯ Compared with an overnight cLPB, a 4-day ambulatory cLPB decreases the time to reach three predefined discharge criteria by an estimated 38% after hip arthroplasty. However, the extended infusion did not increase ambulation distance to a statistically significant degree.