Rothe C, Lund J, Jenstrup MT, et al. - In this randomized, blinded, placebo-controlled study with 60 patients, researchers investigated whether a reduced morphine consumption and pain post-arthroscopic subacromial decompression could be achieved with a selective block of the axillary nerve. They randomly allocated the patients to a preoperative selective ultrasound-guided axillary nerve block with 20 mL ropivacaine (7.5 mg/mL) or 20 mL saline. Data were examined from 50 patients. They noted that the two groups did not differ significantly in terms of 0–4 h postoperative morphine consumption. They did note a decrease in postoperative pain: visual analogue scale (VAS) 0–4 h (area under the curve) (ropivacaine 135, placebo 182), VAS following 8 h (ropivacaine 9, placebo 20) and VAS following 24 h (ropivacaine 7, placebo 18). Findings revealed some analgesic effect of a selective block of the axillary nerve, though the effect observed in this setting was unpredictable, variable and far from sufficient in a large proportion of the patients.