Trial of Injected Liposomal Bupivacaine vs Bupivacaine Infusion After Surgical Stabilization of Rib Fractures

• Status: Completed
• Trial end date: 2021-01-31
• Target enrollment: 0
• Participant gender: All

Summary

Rib fractures represent a common injury pattern this is highly associated with patient morbidity and mortality, as pain control remains a challenge. Even after surgical stabilization of rib fractures (SSRF), unsuccessful pain control can lead to morbid outcomes such as pneumonia and opioid dependence. Multi-modal anesthesia, with the use of thoracic epidurals and para-vertebral injections/catheters, has shown to lessen these occurrences but are subject to a wide array of limitations. A more directed therapy with liposomal bupivacaine has shown to provide sustained analgesia for up to 72 hours in patients who have undergone other types of thoracic surgery, but not SSRF. The hypothesis of the current clinical trial is that, among patients undergoing SSRF, liposomal bupivacaine delivered via video assisted thoracic surgery (VATS) is an intercostal nerve block that provides comparable analgesia to the pain catheter, as measured by pulmonary function, numeric pain scoring, and postoperative narcotic use.

• Phase: Phase 4
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers?: No

Details

• Lead Sponsor: Denver Health and Hospital Authority
• Treatments: Bupivacaine

Criteria

Inclusion Criteria:

• Patients undergoing SSRF at Denver Health Medical Center

Exclusion Criteria:

• Allergy or hypersensitivity to bupivacaine

• Pregnancy

• Incarceration

• Age < 18 years

• Indwelling continuous thoracic epidural analgesia