Effect of a Multimodal Pain Regimen on Pain Control, Patient Satisfaction and Narcotic Use in Orthopaedic Trauma Patients

Patients will be assessed for inclusion or exclusion during admission to the hospital or during evaluation in the clinic or emergency room for an isolated extremity fracture for which surgery is indicated. Once enrolled in the study and consent obtained, patients will be randomized into either the standard therapy group or the multimodal therapy group using permuted block randomization based on injury site. The sites of fracture are as follows:

• wrist/hand/forearm
• elbow/upper arm/shoulder
• acetabulum/pelvis
• foot/ankle
• patella/tibia (shaft, proximal)
• femur (proximal to distal)

The investigators have assumed that these distinct areas result in a similar amount of disability and pain as compared to the other sites. This is an attempt to mitigate the possible confounder of disproportionate numbers of more painful or more debilitating injuries falling in one study group compared to another.

Pre-operatively, patient demographic data will be recording including age, gender, BMI, hand dominance, occupation, use of tobacco/alcohol/illicit drugs, use of assistive devices, relevant comorbidities (i.e., diabetes), site of injury, mechanism and energy (high or low). If there is to be a delay between initial presentation and surgery, as is often the case for distal radius or ankle fractures, among others, multimodal patients will begin their therapy immediately after evaluation. Thus, they will be started on scheduled 1000mg acetaminophen and 100mg gabapentin both three times daily. They will also be provided an 5mg oxycodone prescription with instructions to take 1-3 tablets every 4 hours as needed for pain. Standard therapy patients will be prescribed oxycodone alone, using the same parameters, with the ability to take acetaminophen on an as needed basis.

Pre-operatively, multimodal patients will receive 1000mg IV acetaminophen, 100mg PO gabapentin and 400mg PO celecoxib. All patients will have a peripheral nerve block placed when indicated, to confirm to the investigators standard of care. Patients will then undergo surgery with the investigators standardized anesthesia protocol as described in the protocol. Intraoperatively, multimodal patients will receive 8mg of IV dexamethasone. Post-operatively, multimodal patients will be given 1000mg acetaminophen three times daily for the duration of their narcotic use and 100mg Gabapentin three times daily for 1 week, which will be titrated to 200mg three times daily for 1 additional week. They will also receive an oxycodone prescription as described previously. Standard therapy patients will be given an oxycodone prescription alone with the advice to take tylenol on an as needed basis not to exceed 4000mg/day. No placebo medications will be used as this is an open label study.