Urgent interscalene brachial plexus block for management of traumatic luxatio erecta in the ED

Trauma in the emergency department may present providers with amyriad of unforeseen clinical scenarios.We present an example of how an urgent nerve block facilitated rapid management of a luxatio erecta shoulder fracture-dislocation without sedation. A 20-year-old female pedestrian presented to our level II trauma center after being stuck bya motor vehicle. At arrival, she had clinical indications of severe blunt trauma as well as a left-sided luxatio erect a shoulder dislocation and fracture. Immediate computed tomography (CT) imaging as requestedby the trauma service; however, the patient could not tolerate any movement of her left arm, precluding entry into the scanner's narrow antrum. This scenario presented a clinical dilemma: an undifferentiated victim of severe blunt trauma requiring urgent CT scanning to exclude possible intracranial, intrathoracic, and/or intra-abdominal injury in need of immediate reduction of a dislocated joint to allow entry into the CT scanner. Conscious sedation risked loss of neurologic examination,hypotension, apnea, and further delay to definitive imaging. As an alternative, our team reduced the shoulder under regional anesthesia with an interscalene nerve block using a “stay-away” technique and chloroprocaine. Regional anesthesia presents a viable option in this scenario for rapid-onset analgesia available urgently at the bedside. In our experience, using a stay-away technique in conjunction with short-acting, low-toxicity chloroprocaine provides safe, quick, and effective anesthesia. This allowed for prompt reduction of the dislocated joint and timely evaluation for potential life-threatening injuries while avoiding the risks associated with conscious sedation.