PP 45 THE ROLE OF REGIONAL BLOCKS IN FACILITATING THE ACUTE MANAGEMENT OF LIMB TRAUMA IN THE EMERGENCY DEPARTMENT

Abstract

INTRODUCTION

The role of regional blocks has been globally established as an effective modality of providing surgical anesthesia as well as an effective option of postoperative pain management. The anesthetist often performs such procedures in the pre or post-operative phases. This mode of anesthesia has many advantages including, avoiding the potential morbidities of general anesthesia as well as a safer effective alternative for providing surgical anesthesia. In the recent years, the practice of regional blocks has made its way into facilitating procedures in the Emergency Departments (ED). Nevertheless, such intervention has still not been well established in Malaysia and the South East Asian region.

CASE REPORT

This report presents to you a case series of 6 limb related trauma patients receiving regional blocks in the Emergency Department. The ED team led by the Emergency Physician provided the regional blocks. The procedures for each of the 6 patients differed in the indications as well as the type of blocks provided. All the patients in this case series were acute trauma cases that were treated in Hospital Sungai Buloh, Selangor Malaysia.

DISCUSSION & CONCLUSION

The case series will demonstrate the burst of benefits in providing regional blocks in the Emergency Department. All the patients had a drastic reduction in their pain scores and underwent vital emergency acute care procedures comfortably and successfully in the Emergency Department. Some of the procedures, which would otherwise require procedural sedation and pre-procedural fasting, were successfully avoided, hence reducing the rare but potentially fatal risk associated with it. We would like to promote the utility of regional blocks in facilitating the management of acute limb trauma in the ED. In order to achieve this aim, we would suggest emergency department doctors to undergo training and practice in performing safe and effective limb related regional anesthesia.