Anesthesia for Shoulder Surgery Dr Orwin and Dr Ablove
Anesthesia for the case
- You will have general anesthesia for your shoulder surgery.
- An IV will be placed in the non-operative arm in the pre-operative holding area.
- You will be checked in by nurses. You will talk about your health and anesthesia plan with your anesthesia doctor.
- You will receive a nerve block before going to the operating room. After you get a nerve block you will meet the room nurses and the rest of your team. You will then be brought back to the operating room (OR) after getting some sedation through your IV.
- Once in the OR you will move onto a bed and have monitors placed.
We will confirm your name, birthday, surgery, and allergies. You will take some deep breaths of oxygen. Next you will get some IV medicine that will make you sleep for your surgery. After falling asleep a breathing tube will be placed. You will be moved onto your side. - Your arm, neck, and legs will be well supported and cushioned.
- Once surgery is done, you will wake up and have the breathing tube pulled. People often do not remember anything until the recovery room.
- Once in the recovery room, a nurse will help with any issues that arise.
Pain control for surgery
- You will meet the “block team” while you are in the holding area. They will talk to you about a nerve block for shoulder surgery.
- We do some form of nerve block for almost 100% of our patients having shoulder surgery.
- A single injection block involves putting numbing medicine around the nerves in your neck that give feeling to your shoulder and arm.
- If you get a single injection block, the needle will be taken out after the medicine is injected. That medicine will “numb” your shoulder for 12-15 hours.
- This block gives you better pain control than pain pills or IV pain medicine alone.
Receiving the block
- You will be taken to the “block room” on your bed to have your block placed. You will have heart, blood pressure, and oxygen monitors placed.
- We will confirm your name, date of birth, surgery, and allergies.
- After that we will place you for your block and give you some sedation.
- While getting your block your arm may “jump” at some point. This is a normal part of placing a nerve block.
- You may note that your arm may start to become “sleepy” or numb before you go to the OR.
Risks
- The risk of anything bad happening with this type of anesthesia is very low.
- With general anesthesia the most likely “bad” outcomes are sore throat or nausea. We will give you some anti-nausea medicine during surgery to lessen that risk.
- All nerve blocks carry risk of nerve damage, bleeding and infection.
- We will take many precautions to keep you as safe as possible.
We look forward to talking with you on the day of your surgery. We will speak with you more about your options at that time. Patients options will sometimes vary based on their health conditions.
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Last Updated: 08/21/2012
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