Subomohyoid vs Costoclavicular Block in Shoulder Surgery

Overview

Postoperative pain is important following arthroscopic shoulder surgery. Postoperative effective pain treatment provides early mobilization and shorter hospital stay.Ultrasound (US)-guided brachial plexus blocks such as interscalen and supraclavicular block are usually performed. Interscalen brachial plexus block is one of the most preferred techniques among these. Anterior suprascapular nerve block (subomohyoid plane block), which provides superior trunk block, as described by Siegenthaler et al., has been used for analgesia in shoulder arthroscopies because it is far from the neck and phrenic nerve. Karmakar et al. described the costoclavicular nerve block, which provides blocking of the posterior, medial and lateral cords of the brachial plexus. It has been suggested as an alternative to postoperative analgesia in shoulder arthroscopies and compared with interscalene brachial plexus block. The aim of this study is to compare the post op analgesic efficacy of both nerve blocks in shoulder arthroscopic surgeries.

Postoperative pain is an important issue in patients underwent arthroscopic shoulder surgery. Pain causes a few problems; discomfortable patients, negative outcomes and longer rehabilitation. Postoperative effective pain treatment provides early mobilization and shorter hospital stay, thus complications due to hospitalization such as infection and thromboembolism may be reduced. Various techniques may be used for postoperative pain treatment. Opioids are one of the most preferred drugs among the analgesic agents. Parenteral opioids are generally performed for patients after surgery. However opioids have undesirable adverse events such as nausea, vomiting, itching, sedation and respiratory depression (opioid-related adverse events). Various methods may be performed to reduce the use of systemic opioids and for effective pain treatment following arthroscopic shoulder surgery. Ultrasound (US)-guided brachial plexus blocks such as interscalen and supraclavicular block are commonly used. Interscalen brachial plexus block is one of the most preferred techniques among these. Ultrasound-guided nerve blocks have been used increasingly due to the advantages of ultrasound in anesthesia practice. US-guided subomohyoid and costoclavicular block are techniques that target the brachial plexus, and their use has increased in recent years. Patients will undergo preoperative subomohyoid block as described by Siegenthaler et al. In the other patient group, costoclavicular block will be applied as described by Karmakar et al. Superficial cervical brachial plexus block will also be applied to this group. There is no study in the literature about the effectiveness of these techniques against each other. The aim of this study was to evaluate the postoperative analgesic efficacy of the subomohyoid plane block and combination of costoclavicular and superficial cervical plexus block after arthroscopic shoulder surgery.