Inadvertent Prolonged Femoral Nerve Palsy After Field Block with Liposomal Bupivacaine for Inguinal Herniorrhaphy

Iatrogenic femoral nerve injuries: Analysis of medico-legal issues through a scoping review approach

Purpose

Accidental femoral nerve injury is a well-known iatrogenic complication of orthopaedic, abdominal, and pelvic surgery. Because of the largely transitory nature of the symptoms associated with nerve damage, its true incidence is in all likelihood underestimated. This work aims to illustrate the surgical contexts within which this nerve injury is reported, based on the evidence obtained from a Scoping Review of the literature of the last 20 years, with specific reference to the underlying etiopathogenetic mechanisms and prognostic outcomes, to highlight the evaluation issues of medico-legal interest related to this pathology.

Methods

We conducted a Scoping Review of iatrogenic femoral nerve injuries reported between 2000 and 2021 by searching the electronic databases Pubmed, Scopus, Ovid Medline, Ovid Emcare, and Web of Science.We conducted the review according to the five-step methodology outlined by Arksey and O'Malley.

Results

The literature search identified 104 papers, including case reports, case series, and retrospective studies. Surgical contexts within which iatrogenic femoral nerve injuries were reported include orthopaedic, abdominal, gynaecological, urological, vascular, and plastic surgery, as well as locoregional anaesthesiological procedures. The long-term prognosis was generally favourable.

Conclusions

Because of its frequent iatrogenic genesis, femoral nerve injury is a topic of intense medico-legal interest. From the perspective of estimating the patient's disability, the mostly favourable nature of the prognosis makes the medico-legal assessment, in some respects, complex, thus requiring a precise evaluation methodology.

Clinical Effectiveness of Liposomal Bupivacaine Administered by Infiltration or Peripheral Nerve Block to Treat Postoperative Pain

The authors provide a comprehensive summary of all randomized, controlled trials (n = 76) involving the clinical administration of liposomal bupivacaine (Exparel; Pacira Pharmaceuticals, USA) to control postoperative pain that are currently published. When infiltrated surgically and compared with unencapsulated bupivacaine or ropivacaine, only 11% of trials (4 of 36) reported a clinically relevant and statistically significant improvement in the primary outcome favoring liposomal bupivacaine. Ninety-two percent of trials (11 of 12) suggested a peripheral nerve block with unencapsulated bupivacaine provides superior analgesia to infiltrated liposomal bupivacaine. Results were mixed for the 16 trials comparing liposomal and unencapsulated bupivacaine, both within peripheral nerve blocks. Overall, of the trials deemed at high risk for bias, 84% (16 of 19) reported statistically significant differences for their primary outcome measure(s) compared with only 14% (4 of 28) of those with a low risk of bias. The preponderance of evidence fails to support the routine use of liposomal bupivacaine over standard local anesthetics.

Transient obturator nerve block with fascia iliaca compartment block following local infiltration for open inguinal herniorrhaphy

Background

Ilioinguinal nerve block is effective for analgesia after open inguinal herniorrhaphy. However, transient femoral nerve palsy can happen after the block. The ambulatory patients sometimes cannot discharge from the hospital with the motor deficiency. Here is described a case of fascia iliaca compartment block with complete obturator nerve block after surgical infiltration analgesia for open inguinal herniorrhaphy.

Case presentation

An ambulatory open inguinal herniorrhaphy was performed for a 63-year-old male under general anesthesia. The mixture of short-/long-acting local anesthetics was injected by the surgeon into the subcutaneous tissue, between the Camper’s and Scarpa’s fasciae, into the inguinal canal, and between the internal oblique and transversus abdominis muscles. The patient could not adduct his ipsilateral hip joint at all 1 h after emergence. The flexion of the hip joint was weakened two more hours later, and numbness of the lateral thigh emerged. The complications completely resolved 7 h after surgery.

Conclusions

Surgical infiltration analgesia as well as percutaneous ilioinguinal nerve block can cause both fascia iliaca plane block and obturator nerve block. Analgesia regimen should be carefully built for ambulatory surgery.