Delirium in Elderly Patients With Trauma of the Hip

A broken hip occurs frequently in elderly patients and is often very painful. Side effects of inadequately treated pain as well as the traditional drugs (administered through intravenous catheter) used to treat pain are, among others, a confusional state, called delirium. When pain medication is administered locally, only around the hip joint, pain might be treated more effectively and these side effects could be prevented. This is called a nerve block. The current study evaluates the use of a continuous nerve block throughout the complete hospital admission with a catheter around the hip joint versus the use of traditionally used pain medication administered though an intravenous catheter in elderly patients with a broken hip. Half of all patients will receive the nerve block while in the emergency department and the other half will receive pain medication through the intravenous access.