Why the study?
Does regional anesthesia (interscalene block) reduce postoperative pain and facilitate recovery in patients undergoing elective shoulder surgery compared to general anesthesia?
Does regional anesthesia (interscalene block) reduce postoperative pain and facilitate recovery in patients undergoing elective shoulder surgery compared to general anesthesia?
Regional anesthesia via interscalene block decreases immediate postoperative pain and opioid requirements while shortening recovery room stay compared to general anesthesia for shoulder surgery.
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Should not yet change anesthesia practice for shoulder surgery; hypothesis-generating for regional block benefits in prospective trials.
A retrospective review of 114 patients who underwent elective shoulder surgery from January 1, 1995 to December 31, 1996 was performed. Eighty-eight patients received general anesthesia and 26 patients received regional anesthesia (interscalene block). There were no differences in surgical and anesthesia time and time to hospital discharge between groups. Patients who received regional anesthesia had a shorter recovery room stay (63 +/- 25 minutes versus 85 +/- 33 minutes [P.002]) and required less intraoperative fentanyl (174 +/- 96 microg versus 379 +/- 193 microg [P<.0001) and morphine in the recovery room (2 +/- 3 mg versus 6 +/- 7 mg [P=.006]). A higher percentage of patients who received regional anesthesia had a lower pain rating at 4 hours. Regional anesthesia for shoulder surgery decreases pain and facilitates recovery in the immediate postoperative period.
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Wu et al. (2002) studied this question.
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