Winter is coming!

OK, winter is still far away. But it will unfortunately be here before you know it. Why do I mention that in the middle of a hot summer? Winter is hip fracture season. And hip fractures mean that it’s time to get your ultrasound machine, a needle, local anesthetic, and some other bits of gear to block the groin (i.e. femoral, etc.) nerves. There is growing evidence that doing so is beneficial to your patients. Some evidence that you can peruse at your leisure includes a Cochrane review and a meta-analysis published in CJEM. It is also a best practice in Ontario.

The femoral/fascia iliaca block is one of the nerve blocks that we teach at EDE 2, and is Greg’s chapter in the book. But the pickup among participants has been mixed. One reason for that is the timing of the course. If you take the course in April and only see your next hip fracture in December, your confidence in performing the block may not be sufficient to allow you to proceed.

Would it not be ideal to teach the femoral/fascia iliaca block right before hip fracture season? We basically tested that theory over the last couple of years in Sudbury. At the beginning of each of the last two winters, we put approximately ten of our emergency colleagues through the femoral nerve block workshop from EDE 2. Within a maximum of two months, ALL of them performed at least one of these blocks.

So we figured that if it’s good for the emerg docs in Sudbury, it must be good for emergency physicians elsewhere. With that idea in mind, we will be offering the same workshop in Toronto in late November. Each workshop will last 2 hours. Registration has been opened on the EDE 2 website for two 2-hour workshops on the morning of Thursday, November 29. There will be a workshop at 8 AM and then the same workshop will be repeated at 10:30 AM. If the workshops fill up, please sign up on the wait list. If enough folks sign up on the wait list, we will add workshops in the afternoon. Go to www.ede2course.com to register. See below for a screen grab of where the workshops are listed on the home page.