ISRCTN46653818.

Trial name or title	Femoral nerve blockade in hip fracture patients
Methods	RCT Approved by the ethics committee Funding: governmental: Umeå University (Sweden)
Participants	Target number of participants: 250 Inclusion criteria: both males and females, aged 70 years and above, all hip fracture patients admitted to the orthopaedic department Exclusion criteria: local infection, allergy to local anaesthesia, dying patients, pathologic hip fractures
Interventions	Treatment group: Participants in the intervention group will receive a femoral nerve blockade as soon as they arrive. Participants with pain scores > 4 will be given morphine IV according to the standard protocol (morphine 10 mg/mL, 1 to 5 mg when necessary) Control group: regular use of opioids Both groups will receive 1 G of paracetamol 4 times/d. Postoperative pain treatment will be given according to the standard protocol in both arms of the study. Total follow‐up for both arms will end at the time of discharge
Outcomes	Primary outcome measures: postoperative delirium, assessed 3 times a day; postoperative complications, such as decubital ulcers, infections, thrombosis, heart failure and pain. A cognitive test will be assessed in the ambulance pre‐hospital arrival and at 24 +/‐ 6 hours postoperatively. At days three to five, a more thorough assessment will be done including delirium, depression, cognitive status, quality of life and more Secondary outcome measures: mortality, orthopaedic recovery recorded at the time of discharge from the hospital, EQ‐5D, economics
Starting date	30/03/2009
Contact information	Prof Ola Winso Operationscentrum Norrlands universitetssjukhus Umea SE‐901 85 Sweden
Notes	Completed http://www.umu.se/umu/index_eng.html