Background: Total hip arthroplasty is a common procedure being performed at an increasing rate in the United States. Recovering from this surgery to the extent that one can participate in criteria for discharge relies heavily on effective postoperative analgesia. Many regional anesthetic techniques are deployed in this realm. The recent utilization of quadratus lumborum (QL) blocks with success in other procedures warrants investigation in the hip arthroplasty population.
Methods: Twenty patients received general anesthesia for elective total hip arthroplasty. Ten cases included a preoperative ultrasound-guided transmuscular quadratus lumborum block with 30 cc 0.5% ropivacaine. Ten cases that lacked this regional procedure. The primary outcome was length of hospital stay. Secondary outcomes include total procedure time, intraoperative and postoperative fentanyl administration, and mean postoperative visual analog pain scores (VAS 1 - 10).
Results: Length of stay was shorter in patients receiving QL block (2.9 days) versus patients not receiving QL block (5.1 days) (P value 0.0146). Intra-operative use of fentanyl was lower in patients receiving QL block (183.5 mcg) versus patients not receiving QL block (240 mcg) (P value 0.0376). PACU narcotic utilization, 24-hour VAS score, and length of operative procedure lacked statistical significance, though the study was not powered for these outcomes.
Conclusions: QL block employment in hip surgery produces significant reduction in length of stay and intraoperative fentanyl use. While quadratus lumborum blocks are rapidly becoming a popular option due to its quality and spread of analgesia, more adequately powered prospective research must be performed to appropriately elucidate significant trends.
Keywords: Analgesia; Analgesics; Anesthesia; Anesthetics, Combined; Anesthetics, Local; Non-Narcotic; Peripheral Nervous System Agents.