Impact of combined nerve blocks on the outcome of hip replacement in elderly patients with acute cerebral infarction

Objective: To investigate the impact of ultrasound-guided lumbar plexus, sciatic nerve and L1 paravertebral combined nerve blocks on the outcomes of elderly acute cerebral infarction patients with femoral neck fracture who underwent hip replacement. Methods: The clinical data of 114 elderly acute cerebral infarction patients with femoral neck fracture and underwent artificial hip replacement surgery from May 2013 to September 2018 in Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University were retrospectively analyzed. The patients were divided into two groups based on the different anesthetic methods they received: general anesthesia (G group, n=48), lumbar plexus, sciatic nerve and L1 paravertebral combined nerve blocks (N group, n=66). The operation time, anesthesia time, blood loss, urine volume, norepinephrine dose, length of intensive care unit (ICU) stay, hospital mortality and postoperative 6-month mortality were observed and compared between the two groups. The mini-mental state examination (MMSE) scores and the national institute of health stroke scale (NIHSS) scores were evaluated, respectively. Meanwhile, plasma D-Dimer and S100β levels were measured 1 d before surgery, 3 d and 7 d after surgery. Results: There were no significant differences in the baseline characteristics, operation time, anesthesia time, blood loss and length of ICU stay between the two groups (all P>0.05). Compared with group G, the dosage of norepinephrine [(86±23) μg vs (184±28) μg], hospital mortality [7.6% (5/66) vs 25.0% (12/48)] and postoperative 6-month mortality [12.1% (8/66) vs 31.3% (15/48)] were significantly decreased in group N, while the urine volume [(265±58) ml vs (160±55) ml] was significantly increased (all P<0.01). The MMSE scores (9.9±3.0 vs 14.6±2.4) in group N were significantly higher than those in the group G 3 d after surgery, while the NIHSS scores (15.3±3.2 vs 9.9±3.5), plasma D-Dimer [(10.8±2.5) mg/L vs (7.3±2.2) mg/L] and S100β levels [(326±35) ng/L vs (276±29) ng/L] were significantly lower than those in group G (all P<0.01). Conclusion: Combined nerve blocks can reduce the mortality of acute cerebral infarction patients undergoing hip replacement surgery, and improve the brain function and prognosis of the patients.