Ultrasound-Guided Nerve Block, an ED Opioid Alternative

Prescription opioid abuse has reached epidemic levels in the United States, affecting nearly two million Americans in 2014. Overdose deaths involving these drugs have quadrupled since 1999, and every day more than 1,000 patients are treated in emergency departments (EDs) for misuse of prescription opioids.¹ Yet prescribing has risen so sharply that in 2012, enough opiates were prescribed to supply every U.S. adult with his or her own bottle, according to the Centers for