Local Anesthetic for Plateau Fractures
Phase: PHASE4
Conditions: Tibial Plateau Fractures
Sponsor: University of Washington

Study name: Local anesthetic for plateau fractures 
Clinicaltrials.gov identifier 
June 3 2024 
 
 

Local anesthetic for plateau fractures 
Jonah Hebert-Davies MD 
 
Introduction 
Tibial plateau surgical fixation of fractures is painful to patients and often extends their hospital sty for 
pain management. If the application of a local anesthetic into the joint at the time of surgery can reduce 
post-operative pain this will be a direct benefit to patients. There is no agreed upon single standard of 
care. There are multiple different pain management strategies for dealing with post-operative pain. The 
goal of this study is to determine if this specific treatment can become standard of care. Preliminary 
work has reviewed existing cases in both arms verifying that there are no safety concerns. 
Methods: 
Inclusion Criteria 
18 years or older 
Tibial plateau fracture treated with ORIF 
Exclusion Criteria 
Known allergy to Bupivacaine 
Data Points 
Age 
Hospital length of stay 
Randomized arm 
Pain at time of discharge 
Pain at time of 1st follow-up 
 
Methodology 
Patients will be enrolled at a single facility (Harborview Medical Center-HMC). Patients who meet 
inclusion criteria will be assigned to one of two groups based on randomization. Both treatments are 
considered acceptable standards of practice in the orthopedic trauma community on a local and national 
level. All patients will be treated similarly until the time of local anesthetic application. One group will 
receive bupivacaine injection into the joint the other group will receive saline. 
Risks: 
Ther is no known risk to the patient as both treatments are current standard of practice both nationally 
and locally. All patient identifiers will be kept private. All data will be stored on a password protected 
database available only to the study team. 

 
Benefits 
The study performed will provide information regarding the optimal treatment strategy for post-
operative pain reduction in proximal tibial plateau fractures. The information is of benefit to patients 
when being counseled by surgeons regarding their hospital length of stay and pain medication needs. 
Procedure to ensure confidentiality 
No patient identifiers will be used during the formal study. Identifiers such as name and medical record 
numbers will be used to identify patients with a tibial plateau fracture and will be stored on a password 
protected departmental network in a master file. Data files will be listed with a subject number.