Suprascapular Nerve Block

• Purpose – To relieve pain of the shoulder
• Procedure Overview – The injection delivers anesthetic and anti-inflammatory solution directly to the suprascapular nerve in order to establish a diagnosis, relieve discomfort, and reduce inflammation, as well as treat arthritis, bursitis, or chronic shoulder pain.
• Before the procedure – The anti-inflammatory solution may increase your blood sugars.  If you have a history of issues with elevated blood sugars then you should discuss this with your primary care doctor, or endocrinologist.
• Details – The procedure begins with the patient being connecting to monitoring devices for safety and comfort purposes. Then, the injection site is numbed. Following the numbing solution, radiopaque dye is used as a contrast solution under x-ray guidance to confirm the correct needle position. Once the accurate location is determined, the anesthetic and anti-inflammatory solution is injected.
• After the procedure – Assess if there has been good pain relief.  Seek medical help immediately if you experience shortness of breath.  A potential complication with this is pneumothorax. With image guidance the risk of this is very minimal.