Background: Emergency hip surgery is common especially in elderly patients. Very often we are faced with elderly and fragile patients with several comorbidities. In these cases a careful pain control is crucial to reduce length of stay, costs, postoperative complications and mortality. Currently the Fascia Iliaca Block (FIB) and the Femoral Nerve Block (FNB) are the main techniques used for this purpose. Cases presentation: Recently, a new method has been described under ultrasound-guidance, the Pericapsular Nerve Group (PENG) block. In this case series we try to point out the importance of this novel, safe and effective ultrasound-guided locoregional analgesic technique as an alternative to FIB or FNB based on our clinical experience. Conclusion: In this case series the PENG block has been proved to be safe and effective, but more and larger-sized studies are needed to better assess the method in future before it becomes an established analgesic technique for hip surgery.
Pain management is extremely important in day surgery, and it is one of the limiting factors for this type of procedures. Locoregional anesthesia is strongly recommended for day surgery; nevertheless, it could be very difficult to localize nerve position especially in obese patients. Furthermore, a complete nerve blockade could result in a delayed discharge. We present a case of analgesic ultrasound-guided block of tibial and common peroneal nerves in the popliteal fossa without any motor function involvement in an obese patient undergoing debridement of an infected lower limb ulcer; all previous attempts of surgical debridement in day surgery with topical anesthetics had failed because of discomfort due to pain. Our aim was to ensure an optimal degree of analgesia and, at the same time, to save motor function in order to make early discharge possible. We used 15 mL ropivacaine 0.375% to obtain a differential block, taking advantage of sensitive fibers selectivity of ropivacaine. Surgical debridement was performed successfully. Our peripheral blockade was able to provide significantly prolonged analgesia without motor block that guaranteed a safe and early discharge according to the Post Anesthetic Discharge Scoring System. The satisfaction expressed by the patient and her comfort during the procedure support the choice of this approach for intractable painful ulcers of lower limb.
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