ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Med.
Sec. Intensive Care Medicine and Anesthesiology
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmed.2025.1606502
Efficacy of ultrasound-guided lumbar plexus block in reducing emergence agitation in children undergoing hip surgery
Provisionally accepted
- Shanghai Sixth People’s Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China
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Objectives: Emergence agitation (EA) is a common and challenging postoperative problem in children. We aim to investigate the effect of ultrasound-guided lumbar plexus block on emergence agitation in children undergoing hip surgery.Methods: This prospective, randomized, controlled study was conducted in children aged 1-6 yr undergoing elective hip surgery. Subjects were randomly assigned to receive either ultrasoundguided lumbar plexus block combined with general anesthesia (Group Block, n=172) or routine general anesthesia (Group Control, n=172). The primary outcome was the incidence of EA at 30 min after emergence from general anesthesia, assessed using the Pediatric Anesthesia Emergence Delirium (PAED) scale. The secondary outcomes included the incidence of severe EA, postoperative pain evaluated by the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario Pain Scale (CHEOPS) and the incidence of postoperative adverse complications.The incidence of EA was significantly lower in Group Block than in Group Control (13.4% vs. 44.2%, p<0.001). Group Block had a lower incidence of severe EA than Group Control (3.5% vs.19.1%, p<0.001). CHEOPS was lower in Group Block than in Group Control [mean (95%CI), 4.4(4.3-4.5) vs.4.9 (4.8-5.0), p<0.001].Ultrasound-guided lumbar plexus block could effectively decrease the incidence and severity of emergence agitation in children undergoing hip surgery.
Keywords: Emergence agitation, general anesthesia, lumbar plexus, Nerve Block, Pediatrics, Ultrasonography
Received: 05 Apr 2025; Accepted: 19 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Zhang, Wang, Chen, Yan, Chen, Yang, Xing, Zhang and Xu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Hui Zhang, Shanghai Sixth People’s Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China
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