Pain concerns after shoulder surgery

Question :IknowI need to have my shoulder operated on, but people say it is horribly painful. Is this true?

Answer: Anxiety about pain in the postoperative period after shoulder surgery is common, and I spend a lot of time talking about this with patients in the office. It is true that operations on this area of the body have a bad reputation for being painful but we have made serious strides over the past decade with creative strategies focused on making the procedure far better tolerated and at times surprisingly painless.

The critical improvements we have made stem from understanding that pain from surgery can be blocked from many angles, and narcotics (traditional pain medication) are only a small part of the solution. We attack pain from at least five or six angles, many of which are instituted prior to the surgery even starting.

These improvements have taken us to the point where we are able to perform shoulder replacement surgery as a completely outpatient surgery, where patients can go home on the same day, and has been effective at making our arthroscopic rotator cuff patients much more comfortable as well.

These procedures are reliable and effective, and now with an aggressive and proactive pain control program are also far better tolerated.

My team has published our unique approach using these innovative techniques, and I have been asked to present our results at both national and international meetings so that other shoulder surgeons can learn from our experience.