Most shoulder operations are carried out under a combination of both regional and general anaesthesia. Regional anaesthesia is a nerve block which provides excellent pain relief for shoulder surgery and to do this we perform an injection in the side of your neck (Interscalene nerve block). This injection is done under sedation which means that 50% of our patients have no recollection of the injection and those that do remember it generally do not report it as a painful procedure.

Following the nerve block you will then be given a full general anaesthetic which is administered into a drip we put into the back of your hand. The next thing you know you will be waking up in recovery and with your numb arm in a sling.

Sickness in our patients is very uncommon and so you should wake feeling clear headed and ready for a sandwich and a cup of tea!

the Injection

The brachial plexus is the group of nerves that lies between your neck and armpit and it contains all the nerves that supply everything from your shoulder to your fingertips.

An injection of local anaesthetic around the brachial plexus will ‘block’ information travelling along the nerves resulting in your arm becoming numb and immobile. 

For shoulder surgery we inject local anaesthetic around the nerves between 2 of your Scalene muscles in your neck and this will give you a very numb shoulder, arm and hand, although you may retain sensation down the little finger side of the hand.

The ‘block’ should provide you with excellent pain relief for about 18 hours after the operation (range 8 to 24 hours).

As the ‘block’ wears off you may experience pins and needles in your fingers – this is normal.

Dr Harry Akerman - Consultant Anaesthetists

Dr Akerman has been working with Mr Hand since 2008 in both the NHS and in private practice. He trained as a doctor in London and during his post graduate training he has also worked in Australia, New Zealand and across the South of England. Dr Akerman has been a consultant at University Hospital Southampton since 2008 where he is the lead for regional anaesthesia (injections that numb up parts of your body to give you the best form of pain relief following surgery). His  main area of interest is in patient outcomes and he has co-designed software to collate feedback from patients ,thus ensuring he knows better than most how his patients fare following surgery. Dr Akerman regularly teaches regional anaesthesia on national courses and lectures nationally and internationally on patient outcomes.

Away from work Dr Akerman spends his time surrounded by women!  Married to Catherine they have 3 girls (and 4 hens!) and when time allows he is a keen sportsman who still plays fives, cricket, tennis and enjoys skiing and cycling. He is also a keen golfer whose main aim for the next year is to get Mr Hand out on the course more often!