Postoperative Analgesia in a Prolonged Continuous Interscalene Block Versus Single-Shot Block in Outpatient Arthroscopic Rotator Cuff Repair: A Prospective Randomized Study

92 patients scheduled for outpatient arthroscopic rotator cuff repair were randomized to be managed with either a single-shot interscalene brachial plexus block (ISB) or continuous interscalene block for 72 hours postoperatively. The purpose of this study was to evaluate if the continuous ISB group demonstrated significantly better analgesia compared to the single-shot group over the first 3 postoperative days. The results demonstrated significantly lower resting and movement pain scores, lower rescue analgesia use, lower incidence of analgesic-related adverse events, lower incidence of sleep disturbance, and greater patient satisfaction in the continuous ISB group compared to the single-shot ISB group.