Patients who are recovering from rotator cuff surgery know all too well that surgery on the shoulder is often painful. Some patients have very little pain after shoulder surgery, but most have significant pain for a few days to a few weeks.
Introduction: Pain can be severe during the first days after arthroscopic surgery, and acute pain is an important outcome in clinical trials of surgical technique or anaesthetic strategy.
Most people who have rotator cuff surgery can expect to feel some level of pain for at least six months after their procedure.
Rotator Cuff Repair surgeries are notoriously painful! Many patients say it is the worst pain they have ever experienced. To make matters worse, you are bound up in a sling after surgery and can't move the arm to try to “find a comfortable spot”.
You will feel tired for several days. Your shoulder will be swollen. And you may notice that your skin is a different colour near the cut (incision). Your hand and arm may also be swollen.
A rotator cuff surgery is a major surgical intervention in the shoulder, and the reason that there is pain after surgery is the amount of normal surgical trauma. Cutting, drilling, cauterizing, and suturing tissues create pain and inflammation.
Swelling and Bruising.
Tissue injury, whether accidental or intentional (e.g. surgery), is followed by localized swelling. After surgery, swelling increases progressively, reaching its peak by the third day. It is generally worse when you first arise in the morning and decreases throughout the day.
Most patients, who have undergone rotator cuff surgery, can return to car driving within two weeks of surgery.
If you've recently had shoulder surgery, you are likely aware of the fact that you experience more pain in bed, at night. There are several reasons for this: When we sleep, it's common to bend one or both arms under the pillow, or sleep on our side, or naturally shift to the fetal position.
If pain persists following surgery, it is typically the result a damaged nerve. The other possibility is advanced shoulder disease which does not respond to conservative options and surgery is not recommended. In this case modulation of the primary nerves responsible for shoulder sensation can be an answer.
You will most likely need to sleep in a semi-reclined position for at least six weeks after surgery, sometimes longer. If you don't own a recliner, it may be worthwhile to buy one or borrow one from a friend before you have your shoulder surgery.
You should wear your sling when you sleep. Driving: Operating a motor vehicle may be difficult due to you inability to use your operative arm. If you should have an accident or get pulled over while wearing a sling, the authorities may consider that driving while impaired.
The best position to sleep in is the one that doesn't put pressure on your affected arm, which means sleeping either on your back or on the unaffected side. You might also be advised to sleep in a reclined position, as it puts less pressure on the injured rotator cuff and promotes healing.
Light housework may resume after 6 weeks. More strenuous housework should be avoided until 3 months after your operation. After approximately six weeks you will be given permission to resume light activities of daily living. Always maintain a good posture and avoid hunched or drooped shoulders.
The First Days after Rotator Cuff Surgery:
Your doctor will prescribe medications to help with discomfort. Always try to prevent the pain from becoming severe by taking smaller doses of pain medication at the early signs of discomfort, rather than large doses when the pain is more severe.
First two weeks:
At this point, there should be no active movement of the shoulder, and there should be nothing placed in the hand while the arm is in the sling. Patients who are compliant with the sling and range of motion exercises typically have fewer complications later in the process.
The knee replacement is much more painful than a hip or shoulder.
It is common for people to have some symptoms after surgery. Mild or moderate pain and swelling at the incision site are common. These symptoms usually peak 2 to 3 days after surgery and then get better.
Is sleep after surgery important? The importance of rest after surgery is stressed by doctors because your body is going to do a lot of healing while sleeping. After all, your body does the majority of its healing while you're asleep. It's important that you're able to take a nap whenever you need to.
It is reasonable to aim for pain that is a 2-3 out of 10, with zero being no pain and ten being the worst pain you can imagine. If you are concerned about the level of pain control you will have after surgery, speak with your surgeon before and after your surgery.
The highest incidence of postoperative complications is between one and three days after the operation. However, specific complications occur in the following distinct temporal patterns: early postoperative, several days after the operation, throughout the postoperative period and in the late postoperative period.