SGEM#381: Put Your Hand on My Shoulder and Reduce It

Date: October 27th, 2022 Reference: Hayashi et al. Comparative efficacy of sedation or analgesia methods for reduction of anterior shoulder dislocation: A systematic review and network meta-analysis. AEM October 2022 Guest Skeptic: Dr. Justin Morgenstern is an emergency physician and the creator of the #FOAMed project called First10EM.com   Case: A 19-year-old man presents to the emergency department (ED) with his first time anterior should dislocation after trying to recreate one of his favourite scenes in the movie Lethal Weapon. He is in significant pain, but your charge nurse informs us that, like most days since the pandemic started, the department is completely full of admitted patients, and there is nowhere safe to perform a procedural sedation, let alone have the staff to do it. The patient asks, through clenched teeth, whether there are any other options to get his shoulder back in. Background: We have covered shoulder issues a few times on the SGEM. There was an episode looking at diagnosing rotator cuff injuries (SGEM#74), the best position post-dislocation immobilization (SGEM#121) and using point of care ultrasound (POCUS) to diagnose shoulder dislocations (SGEM#288). The shoulder joint has the widest range of motion of any joint in the human body. This makes it very useful and very susceptible being dislocated. The vast majority of shoulder dislocations are anterior. Young active men are at greatest risk for dislocating their shoulder. There is also a wide range of options to diagnose shoulder dislocations (clinically, POCUS, x-ray) and dozens of reduction techniques. Some clinicians perform reductions without any analgesics at all, while others choose from a variety of options, including peripheral nerve blocks, intra-articular anesthesia, and full procedural sedation. Procedural sedation might represent one of the greatest advancements for the practice of emergency medicine, allowing us to perform a large variety of necessary but painful procedures without causing our patients pain. Although minor adverse events, such as brief apnea or hypoxia, are common, significant adverse events are very rare, and the benefits are clear (Bellolio 2016). However, for most departments, procedural sedation represents a logistical challenge that can increase a patient’s length of stay. Peripheral nerve blocks (PNBs) can be very effective at controlling pain, but require a degree of practitioner skill. The use of ultrasound to guide these procedures has increased their popularity in recent years. There have been a few randomized control trials (RCTs) of peripheral nerve blocks for shoulder dislocation, but without definitive results (Raeyat Doost 2017; Blaivas 2011). Intra-articular anesthetic (IAA) injections are another option, and seem like they should be incredibly easy, considering that the humeral head is not sitting in the glenoid fossa, and so the joint is wide open and supposedly easy to access. Intra-articular injection has been compared with procedural sedation (PS) for shoulder dislocation, with some potential benefits (Wakai 2011).  However, in one study, emergency physicians missed the joint space almost half the time when performing landmark-based shoulder injections (Omer 2021). Therefore, uncertainty remains about the ideal technique to provide analgesia and/or sedation for the reduction of anterior shoulder dislocations. Clinical Question: What is the safety and efficacy of intravenous sedation, intra-articular injection, and peripheral nerve block for the reduction of anterior shoulder dislocations. Reference: Hayashi et al. Comparative efficacy of sedation or analgesia methods for reduction of anterior shoulder dislocation: A systematic review and network meta-analysis. AEM October 2022 Population: RCTs that assessed sedation of analgesia methods for the reduction of anterior shoulder dislocations diagnosed on either physical exam or x-ray in patients older than 15 year...