• Svetlana Chembrovich, Barys Ihnatsenka, Cameron Smith, Yury Zasimovich, Amy Gunnett, Timothy R Petersen, and Linda Le-Wendling.
• Anesthesiology, University of Florida College of Medicine, Gainesville, Florida, USA schembrovich@anest.ufl.edu.
• Reg Anesth Pain Med. 2024 Jul 8; 49 (7): 505510505-510.

IntroductionTraditionally, using peripheral nerve blocks (PNBs) in patients with long bone fractures has been limited due to concerns that it may interfere with the timely diagnosis of acute compartment syndrome (ACS). However, our large academic institution and level I trauma center have been using regional anesthesia routinely for pain management of patients with long bone fractures for more than a decade, with strict adherence to a comprehensive management protocol. The aim of this retrospective review is to present our experience with this practice.MethodsFollowing Institutional Review Board approval, we performed a retrospective chart review of patients with long bone fractures and ACS over a 10-year period (2008-2018).Results26 537 patients were included in the review. Approximately 20% of these patients required surgery, and 91.5% of surgically treated patients received regional anesthesia. The incidence of ACS in our cohort was 0.1% or 1.017 per 1000 patients with long bone fractures.ConclusionCurrent recommendations on using PNBs in patients at risk for ACS have been mainly based on expert opinion and dated case reports. Due to the nature of the condition, prospective data are lacking. Our large observational dataset evaluated the risk of missing or delaying ACS diagnosis when PNBs were offered for trauma patients and demonstrated a relatively low incidence of ACS despite the routine use of PNBs under strictly protocolized conditions when patients were managed by a dedicated multidisciplinary care team.© American Society of Regional Anesthesia & Pain Medicine 2024. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.

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