Comparison of Patients Undergoing General Anesthesia or Ultrasonography-guided Interscalene Block In Shoulder Surgery In Terms of Postoperative Analgesia

Aim: It has been aimed to evaluate the pain scores with visual analog scale and compare opioid consumption in the early postoperative period in cases where single-shote interscalene brachial plexus block and general anaesthesia or general anaesthesia alone have been applied for arthroscopic shoulder surgery. Methods: The research encompassed 71 patients between the ages 18-65 who had undergone elective arthroscopic shoulder surgery. One of the groups had been made up of cases that received general anaesthesia (Group GA; N=36) alone and the other had been made up of cases that received a single-shot interscalene block and general anaesthesia (Group ISBPB+GA; N=35) combined. Data from cases that received Group ISBPB+GA (15 ml 0.5% bupivacaine+propofol, fentanyl, sevoflurane) or GA (propofol, fentanyl, sevoflurane) alone were examined. After surgery, pain levels had been evaluated utilizing Visual Analog Scale Scores. Results: The ISBPB+GA group has been observed to have decreased postoperative visual analog scale score and lower analgesic needduring the early postoperative period compared to the GA group. Although the operation time between the groups was shorter in the ISBPB+GA group (87.37±17.65 min), there was no statistically significant difference between hospital discharge time (p˃0.05). Surgeon and patient satisfaction scores had been higher in the ISBPB+GA group compared to patients who underwent GA alone. Conclusion: The cases that underwent ISBPB+GA had notably lower pain scores in postoperative assessments and decreased additional analgesic consumption compared with those who underwent GA alone. We believe that this block provides a more comfortable recovery process in patients undergoing shoulder surgery and can be safely utilized by experienced anesthesiologists.