Early postoperative pain and opioid consumption after arthroscopic shoulder surgery with or without open subpectoral biceps tenodesis and interscalene block

Objective: The addition of open subpectoral biceps tenodesis to arthroscopic shoulder surgery with interscalene block has been anecdotally observed to result in increased postoperative pain. This study aims to evaluate the impact of tenodesis on early postoperative pain and recovery.

Methods: A retrospective review of patients undergoing arthroscopic shoulder surgery with general anesthesia and interscalene block was conducted.

Results: Patients undergoing tenodesis experienced longer OR time, pain numeric rating scale (NRS), and consumed more morphine milligram equivalents (MME) in PACU. After controlling for confounding factors, tenodesis was significantly associated with increased opioid MME consumption in the PACU (β = 1.045, p = .028) and last PACU pain NRS (β = 0.541, p = .009).

Conclusion: Overall, pain scores and narcotic consumption were low after surgery, making these differences potentially clinically insignificant. Further study is required to evaluate whether these trends are consistent among this population.