0.5% Ropivacaine for Hip Arthritis (HIPFIB Trial)

Total hip replacement (THR) is a common and major surgical procedure performed in elderly patients with significant comorbidities. Optimizing a patient's anesthetic and analgesic modalities could play a significant role in minimizing the risk of adverse events in the perioperative period and potentially shorten time to discharge and recovery. Establishing a safe and effective post-operative analgesic plan is of central importance to successful THR anesthesia care. The application of ultrasound visualization has improved the efficacy of the fascia iliaca compartment block (FICB). However, ultrasound-guided suprainguinal FICB has not yet been evaluated clinically in a large trial as a method of providing post-operative analgesia following THR. The investigators hypothesize that by performing the suprainguinal fascia iliaca block with ultrasound, it will be possible to achieve superior and more reliable analgesia in the first 24 hours than without a block.