Trauma Surg Acute Care Open: first published as 10.1136/tsaco-2020-000600 on 26 April 2021. Downloaded from Open access Original research Use of continuous intercostal nerve blockade is associated with improved outcomes in patients with multiple rib fractures Rindi Uhlich,1 Jeffrey David Kerby ,1 Patrick Bosarge,2 Parker Hu 1 1Surgery, The University of ABSTRACT Failure to control pain can result in low tidal volume Alabama at Birmingham, Background Rib fractures are common among trauma ventilation, inadequate clearance of bronchial secre- Birmingham, Alabama, USA tions, obstructive atelectasis, and progressive respi- 2Surgery, University of Arizona patients and may result in significant morbidity and College of Medicine - Phoenix, mortality. There are numerous treatment options, but ratory dysfunction. As a result, multiple rib fractures Phoenix, Arizona, USA ideal management is unclear. Delivery of local anesthetic are associated with significant increase in length via an analgesia catheter for continuous intercostal of stay and ventilator requirements.1 Furthermore, Correspondence to nerve blockade offers an attractive potential option for each additional rib fracture has been correlated with Dr Parker Hu; phu@ uabmc. edu management of patients with rib fractures. subsequent increase in mortality, with approximately 10% of all patients suffering death prior to hospital Received 30 August 2020 Methods We performed a single- center, retrospective 2 Revised 4 December 2020 case–control analysis of trauma patients with multiple discharge. With appropriate analgesia at the fore- Accepted 5 April 2021 rib fractures from 2016 to 2018, comparing patients front of management, a multitude of techniques and managed with continuous intercostal nerve blockade approaches have been investigated. Most treatment with standard care. Matching was performed in a algorithms employ a combination of narcotic and 2:1 ratio by Injury Severity Score, age, and gender. non- narcotic analgesia, but opioids typically serve Respiratory morbidity potentially secondary to rib as the bedrock and carry many negative side effects fractures, including unplanned intubation, failure of and potential dependency issues. extubation, need for tracheostomy, pneumonia, or Management of multiple rib fractures should mortality, were all identified and included. Potential seek to maintain normal respiratory mechanics complications due to catheter insertion were identified to and pulmonary toilet through adequate analgesia.3 be recorded. The primary outcome of interest was 30-day Epidural analgesia is often a recommended adjunct hospital- free days. in the management of multiple rib fractures.4 5 Results Nine hundred and thirty-three patients were However, its use may be limited in this population eligible for analysis, with 48 managed using intercostal due to a variety of reasons, including need for blockade compared with 96 matching controls. No interruption of thromboembolic chemoprophylaxis complications of intercostal blockade were identified or lack of trained personnel available for catheter during the study period. Controls demonstrated fewer placement.6 An alternative to epidural analgesia rib fractures (6.60±4.11 vs. 9.3±3.73, p=0.001) and is subparaspinous continuous intercostal nerve fewer flail segments (0.8±1.76 vs. 2.0±2.94, p=0.02). blockade (CINB) via an extrathoracic catheter Those managed with intercostal blockade demonstrated inserted below the vertebral paraspinous muscles http://tsaco.bmj.com/ significantly more 30-day hospital-free days (15.9±6.43 just above and along the ribs. In the elective setting, vs. 13.2±9.94, p=0.048), less incidence of pneumonia CINB has been shown to provide equivalent pain (4.2% vs. 16.7%, p=0.03), and lower hospital mortality relief compared with thoracic epidural after thora- (2.1% vs. 13.5%, p=0.03). When adjusting for number cotomy.6 Specific to trauma patients, prospective of rib fractures and number of flail segments, use of studies have demonstrated equivocal or even supe- continuous intercostal nerve blockade was significantly rior pain control between thoracic epidural and associated with lower hospital mortality (OR 0.10; 95% thoracic paravertebral infusions of local anesthetic on October 1, 2021 by guest. Protected copyright. CI 0.01 to 0.91), pneumonia (OR 0.15; 95% CI 0.03 to following multiple rib fractures.7 8 0.76), or need for tracheostomy (OR 0.23; 95% CI 0.06 There is limited information available regarding to 0.83). the impact that management with CINB has on Discussion The addition of continuous intercostal nerve outcomes among trauma patients. Although CINB blockade may help to improve outcomes in patients with may improve pain scores and lung volumes among multiple rib fractures compared with standard care alone. trauma patients, further information is still needed Level of evidence Therapeutic/care management; to determine if this limits associated morbidity and level IV. mortality in patients with multiple rib fractures. We © Author(s) (or their hypothesized that use of these catheters in the treat- employer(s)) 2021. Re- use permitted under CC BY-NC . No ment of trauma patients with multiple rib fractures commercial re-use . See rights will result in improved outcomes and increased and permissions. Published INTRODUCTION 30- day hospital- free days compared with patients by BMJ. Rib fractures are among the most commonly encoun- undergoing standard management. To cite: Uhlich R, Kerby JD, tered injuries in the trauma population. Poorly Bosarge P, et al. Trauma controlled pain, altered respiratory mechanics, and METHODS Surg Acute Care Open underlying pulmonary injury combine to present The trauma registry at the University of Alabama at 2021;6:e000600. the clinician with complex management decisions. Birmingham Medical Center (UABMC) was queried Uhlich R, et al. Trauma Surg Acute Care Open 2021;6:e000600. doi:10.1136/tsaco-2020-000600 1 Trauma Surg Acute Care Open: first published as 10.1136/tsaco-2020-000600 on 26 April 2021. Downloaded from Open access Catheters remained in place for up to 5 days after placement. There were no other standards for analgesic management for either cohort, with patients managed with a mix of narcotic, non- narcotic, and topical analgesics according to provider preference. Data regarding patient demographics, injury characteristics, and outcomes were extracted from the medical record. Frac- tures were further defined in terms of three anatomic sectors as recommended by the Chest Wall Injury Society.9 As previ- ously described by Chapman et al,10 fractures were described as anterior from the insertion of the serratus anterior to the distal rib, lateral from the serratus anterior to the costal angle, and posterior from the proximal rib to the costal angle. Respira- tory morbidity potentially secondary to rib fractures, including unplanned intubation, failure of extubation, need for tracheos- tomy, pneumonia, or mortality, were all identified and included. Figure 1 CONSORT diagram for patient selection. CONSORT, Potential complications due to catheter insertion were identified Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials. to be recorded, including pneumothorax, hemothorax, abscess, or cellulitis. Pneumonia was defined by culture- proven bacterial isolate from bronchoalveolar lavage with 1×105 colony forming for patients with multiple rib fractures from January 1, 2016 units. Unplanned intubation was identified in patients as any to February 1, 2018. UABMC is a 908-bed tertiary care facility intubation after admission, excluding patients who required for the region and serves as an American College of Surgeons- intubation for the operating room. Failure of extubation was verified level I trauma center. identified and defined as any patient who required reintubation We performed a retrospective case–control study for patients following previous liberation from mechanical ventilation. with multiple rib fractures managed with CINB via analgesia Variables were collected and expressed as either percentage catheter with standard care (CATH) compared with patients with or mean±SD. Univariate analysis was performed with χ2 and standard care alone (STD). The study design featured 2:1 case– independent t- test for categorical and continuous variables, control matching using nearest neighbor matching according respectively. A p value less than or equal to 0.05 was identified to Injury Severity Score (±1), then age, then gender. A larger as statistically significant. Homogeneity of group data was tested control cohort was identified given the lack of random patient using Levene’s test for equality of variances. selection for the case cohort. Patients with multiple rib fractures Multivariate logistic regression was subsequently performed were identified using International Classification of Diseases-10 to determine the effect of continuous analgesia catheter use codes S22.41XA, S22.42XA, S22.43XA, and S22.49XA. Exclu- on the development of potential respiratory complications of sion criteria included age <18 years old, death within 48 hours, multiple rib fractures. Potential covariates were selected based or less than two rib fractures. on the results of the univariate analyses with p<0.2. Hosmer- Continuous intercostal analgesia was delivered via an ON-Q Lemeshow was performed to assess the goodness of fit of each SilverSoaker catheter (Halyard, Alpharetta, GA), either 7.5 model. inches or 10 inches in length depending on the number of rib The primary outcome of interest was