Pericapsular Nerve Group (PENG) Block for Hip Fracture Surgeries: An Observational Study

Background: Pericapsular Nerve Group (PENG) Block is a relatively new technique for postoperative pain blockade. This is a simple method of the plane block where the pain pathway is blocked by using a simple injection on accessory obturator nerve and femoral nerve that mainly innervates anterior hip capsule. This observational study aimed to evaluate the efficacy of Pericapsular Nerve Group (PENG) Block in patients undergoing hip surgeries. Materials and Methods: A total of 50 patients with different hip pathologies such as femur head fracture; intertrochanteric fractures etc who are scheduled for hip surgeries were included. After the completion of surgery as a post-operative analgesia, every patient received PENG block (0.25%Ropivacaine with 25 mcg of Dexmedetomidine). Paracetamol IV was given along with the PENG block every 8 hours. In patients who had a pain score of more than 4 a tramadol injection is given as rescue analgesia. Various demographic information, pain score, heart rate, systolic and diastolic blood pressure was measured before and after the operation. Results: In this observational study total of 50 patients of ASA Grades I, II, III, and IV were included who came with hip trauma and were scheduled for hip surgery. The mean age of the study participants was 70.8 years. No significant difference was recorded between pre and posts operative heart rate, systolic and diastolic blood pressures. Only after 24 hours of the surgery, the pain score reached 3.6. Only 6 patients required rescue analgesia after almost 700 minutes post-surgery. No such adverse events were recorded for any of the patients. Conclusion: This study has shown the PENG block can be effectively used as a post-operative analgesia in patients undergoing hip trauma surgeries. Moreover, this study has also shown that this technique is simple and safe to use in geriatric patients.