Cervical epidural anesthesia for surgery of the shoulder.

Regional anesthesia has some advantages over general anesthesia for shoulder surgery. Cervical epidural anesthesia, a regional technique not previously described for shoulder operations, was successfully used for surgical procedures on or near the shoulder joint. The technique provided good surgical anesthesia and postoperative analgesia, with few complications and a high degree of patient acceptance. Cervical epidural anesthesia offers some advantages over previously described techniques of regional anesthesia for shoulder operations, including a single needle insertion with no need to elicit paresthesias, lesser volumes of local anesthetic agents, and the ability to easily reinject the catheter intraoperatively if necessary and postoperatively for pain relief.