Interscalene brachial plexus block (IBPB) offers higher night pain relief during the first 24 hours of the arthroscopic repair surgery, on the other hand intravenous acetaminophen (IA) is effective for higher night pain relief at 72 hours of the surgery, as concluded from a prospective study issued in the Journal of Orthopaedics.

Ryosuke Takahashi and colleagues examined the pain relief efficacy of IA and IBPB in a total of 66 patients who had arthroscopic rotator cuff repair (ARCR). Twenty three shoulders were allotted to the IA group and forty three shoulders were allotted to IBPB groups. The visual analog scale (VAS) pain scores at rest, during movement, and at night for the first 72 hours after the surgery were assessed.

As compared to IA group, the IBPB group had significantly lower VAS scores for night pain for the first 24 hours of the Arthroscopic repair surgery. But, the same scores were significantly lower in the IA group as compared to IBPB group at 72 hours of surgery. No other scores were significantly dissimilar amongst the groups.