• E Michael Shanahan, Karen Glaezter, Tiffany Gill, Catherine Hill, Scott Graf, and Peter Allcroft.
• Department of Rheumatology, Flinders University and Flinders Medical Centre, Adelaide, SA, Australia.
• Palliat Med. 2020 Sep 1; 34 (8): 1127-1133.

BackgroundShoulder pain is a distressing but under-reported and poorly managed symptom in people with motor neurone disease.ObjectivesThis study aimed to assess the efficacy of suprascapular nerve block for the management of shoulder pain in patients with motor neurone disease.MethodsA total of 27 patients with motor neurone disease and shoulder pain were offered a suprascapular nerve block. Ten of these patients had bilateral shoulder pain and both were injected, making a total of 37 shoulders. The patients were followed up for a total of 3 months, or until death. Shoulder pain was measured using the pain scale (out of 100) of the shoulder pain and disability index and compared with baseline scores and a placebo control group from an earlier study using the same methodology (ACTRN12619000353190).ResultsFollowing the nerve block there was a significant improvement of pain scores from baseline (58.4) at week 1 (20.8, p < 0.000), week 6 (17.6, p < 0.000) and week 12 (30.4, p = 0.001) and a significant improvement compared with the control group across each time interval.ConclusionSuprascapular nerve block is a safe, effective therapy for patients with chronic shoulder pain.

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