Regional anesthesia is an important element of multimodal pain control regimen for surgical patients. Recently, regional anesthesia using a fascia iliaca block (FIB) to help treat pain in patients who present with hip fractures has been gaining popularity and has been incorporated as part of a multi-modal pain control protocol in many centers. It is commonly offered in addition to oral and intravenous medications to help patients deal with pain in the perioperative period. The block is done by an anesthesiologist under anesthesia using ultrasound guidance. We propose a prospective, randomized study evaluating the efficacy of the FIB as an adjunct in the pre-operative or postoperative period for pain control as measured by visual analog scale (VAS) scores and morphine equivalent dosing (MED), as well as its efficacy in promoting patient participation in physical therapy postoperatively in patients who present with hip fractures. We hypothesize that those patients who receive FIBs will report lower VAS scores as well as decreased narcotic requirement at all time points; and have improved participation in therapy when measured by ambulation distance.
