Post Operation Advice for patients following arthroscopic acromioplasty and frozen shoulder release

You will wake from your surgery with your arm in a disposable sling and a large pad over the shoulder.

As part of the surgery water will have been injected into your shoulder. Some of this fluid will seep out over the next twelve hours.

You may have been given a nerve block by the anaesthetist. This will make your arm feel dead for between twelve and twenty hours. This stops you feeling any pain but your arm will be completely dead until it wakes up. It will wake up from the fingers first slowly coming back to life up the arm.

When this happens you will also start to feel some pain and it is sensible to ask for painkillers from the nursing staff.

The morning after your surgery, all the dressings should be removed and little postage stamp plasters placed over the keyhole incisions.

It is perfectly safe to go in a shower and to wash the skin with soap and water. It is perfectly all right to get the keyhole incisions wet although it is not advised to soak them in a bath. After three days the keyholes will be healed and they can be covered with little plasters or left open. You will be seen approximately a week after the surgery when Mr Kurer will remove the stitches.

The main aim in the days following the surgery is to stop the shoulder getting stiff. You should attempt the exercises shown here. The operated shoulder is stretched by the other arm. It is not necessary to actively elevate the arm, just try to keep it moving in all normal directions. When you see Mr Kurer a week after the surgery he will advise on further stretching and strengthening exercises.

Problems: If you notice marked redness or discharge from the incisions or severe pain, then you should telephone Mr Kurer's secretary during office hours (9am-5pm) on 01923 442739, or outside of these hours at The King's Oak Hospital or The Garden Hospital.

Good luck, I am sure you are going to do well!