Efficacy of 3 ML local anesthetic versus 5 ML in terms of pain relief for closed manipulation of distal radius fracture.

Objective: To determine the efficacy of 3 ml vs. 5 ml local anaesthetic Xylocaine in terms of pain relief for closed manipulation of a distal radius fracture. Study Design: Quasi-experimental Research. Setting: Carried out on patients visiting the Emergency Department (ED) of Ziauddin University Hospital, Karachi with DRFs,. Period: February 2024 to July 2024. Methods: A total of 68 patients diagnosed with DRF were consecutively selected and randomly placed in two groups. Group A patients were managed with 3 ml and group B patients with 5 ml of local anaesthetic Xylocaine before the procedure. The orthopaedic surgeon pursued the standard procedure of closed reduction for DRFs. Before and after surgery, each patient was evaluated for pain using the visual analogue scale (VAS). Statistical interpretation was done with SPSS version 26 by taking a significant p-value of ≤ 0.05. Results: Of the 68 DRF patients, gender was similar in both groups; male patients were 5 (14.7%), and female patients were 29 (85.3%) in each group. The mean pain score on VAS was 9.26 ± 0.51 and 9.12 ± 0.54 before surgery (p-value = 0.252) and 5.91 ± 1.64 and 4.59 ± 1.99 after surgery (p-value = 0.004) in group A (3 ml local anaesthetic) and group B (5 ml local anaesthetic), respectively. The efficacy of local anaesthesia Xylocaine in the management of DRF was significantly higher in group B (5 ml local anaesthetic) as compared to group A (3 ml local anaesthetic) [13 (38.2%) vs. 5 (14.7%); p-value=0.028]. Conclusion: It was concluded that adequate analgesia is provided by 5 ml of local anaesthetic xylocaine applied as a haematoma block for closed manipulation of a distal radius fracture.