The Post-Operative Pain Management of Pediatric Supracondylar Elbow Fractures

Summary

The goal of this study is to compare different ways of treating pain after surgery. This research study involves subjects who have a supracondylar elbow fracture and need surgery. This type of fracture occurs when the humerus (upper arm bone) is broken just above the elbow. Like any other surgery, you can expect that you will feel pain in the hours or days after the operation. Currently, despite the common occurrence of this surgery, there is not a standard way to treat and or prevent any of the pain afterwards. At this hospital, oral (take by mouth) pain medicine is commonly used to treat pain after this surgery. In this study, pain will be treated in one of the following ways: 1. with oral pain medication 2. with oral pain medicine and an intraarticular shot (a shot into the elbow joint) of bupivacaine (a "numbing" drug) or 3. with oral pain medicine and an intraarticular shot of ropivacaine (another "numbing" drug). The shots will be given during surgery. Your participation will help us find out which of these three pain control methods works the best. The correct dosages of all drugs will be safely prescribed by the doctor on an individual basis and all drugs will be used under the careful watch of your attending physician. All the drugs used this study are approved by the FDA for use in adults but they are not specifically approved for use in children. However, nearly 7 out of every 10 drugs approved for adults are not specifically approved by the FDA for use in children. All drugs used in this study will be used in a way that is considered to be safe and reasonable by the Children's Hospital.

Timeline

Start

2008-06

Primary completion

2010-08

Completion

2011-06

Drugs

Indications

No indication recorded.