Peripheral nerve blocks in shoulder arthroplasty: how do they influence complications and length of stay?

ABSTRACT:

Background

Regional anesthesia has proven to be a highly effective technique for pain control after total shoulder arthroplasty. However, concerns have been raised about the safety of upper-extremity nerve blocks, particularly with respect to the incidence of perioperative respiratory and neurologic complications, and little is known about their influence, if any, on length of stay after surgery.

Questions/purposes

Using a large national cohort, we asked: (1) How frequently are upper-extremity peripheral nerve blocks added to general anesthesia in patients undergoing total shoulder arthroplasty? (2) Are there differences in the incidence of and adjusted risk for major perioperative complications and mortality between patients receiving general anesthesia with and without ner

SUBMITTER: Stundner O 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3971209 | biostudies-literature | 2014 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature