Pain relief management following proximal femoral fractures: Options, issues and controversies

Injury. 2015 Nov:46 Suppl 5:S52-8. doi: 10.1016/j.injury.2015.08.014. Epub 2015 Aug 29.

Abstract

The majority of proximal femoral fractures occur in the elderly population. Safe and adequate pain relief is an integral part of the overall management of hip fractures. Inherent difficulties in the assessment of pain in elderly need to be taken into account and unique considerations should be made regarding the effective analgesia due to different elderly physiology, and their response to trauma and subsequent surgery. The pain management should start as soon as possible and special emphasis should be paid to contemporary methods of regional anaesthesia whilst a multimodal approach should be adopted in the perioperative period. The present review summarises the contemporary treatment options and controversies pertaining to the management of pain in elderly patients with proximal femoral fractures.

Keywords: Analgesia; Elderly; Hip fractures; Pain; Proximal femoral fractures.

Publication types

  • Review

MeSH terms

  • Aged
  • Aged, 80 and over
  • Analgesia / methods*
  • Femoral Fractures / complications*
  • Femoral Fractures / physiopathology
  • Femoral Fractures / surgery*
  • Femoral Nerve / drug effects
  • Fracture Fixation, Internal / adverse effects*
  • Fracture Fixation, Internal / methods
  • Humans
  • Intraoperative Complications / drug therapy
  • Nerve Block
  • Pain, Postoperative / drug therapy*
  • Pain, Postoperative / etiology
  • Pain, Postoperative / physiopathology
  • Practice Guidelines as Topic
  • Treatment Outcome