Ultrasound-Guided Femoral Nerve Block for Pain Control in an Infant With a Femur Fracture Due to Nonaccidental Trauma

Abstract

A 3-month-old infant girl was transferred to our emergency department (ED) with a subtrochanteric femoral neck fracture due to nonaccidental trauma. She received multiple doses of parenteral analgesics both before arrival and in our ED. We performed an ultrasound-guided femoral nerve block using 2.0 mL of 0.25% bupivicaine (approximately 1.25 mg/kg) before placing the patient in a Pavlik harness. Successful pain control was achieved within 15 minutes of the procedure allowing pain-free manipulation of the affected extremity. The patient required only a single dose of parenteral narcotics during the ensuing 18 hours. To our knowledge, this is the first report of an ultrasound-guided femoral nerve block used in the ED for pain control in a pediatric patient.