Vanderbilt Anesthesiololgy

The Nashville Surgery Center has initiated “Continuous Peripheral Nerve Blocks” for ambulatory surgery. Using small pain catheters which are inserted along side peripheral nerves, patients can now have relatively major surgery (for example, total shoulder replacements) performed on an outpatient basis with minimal postoperative pain.

Previously, patients required hospitalization for these procedures simply to manage their pain effectively. However, with the use of “multimodal analgesia,” including local anesthetics for 2-4 days, as well as short-acting oral narcotics for breakthrough pain, patients can now have safe, effective, “state of the art” postoperative pain management at home.

This new program significantly decreases the cost of surgery, increases bed availability in the main hospital for other patients, increases patient satisfaction, and minimizes narcotic-related side effects such as nausea, vomiting, sedation, and constipation. In just the first six weeks of implementing the program, more than 35 patients experienced having major surgery with minimal postoperative pain.