Easy Relief for Laparoscopy-Related Shoulder Pain

As a complication of otherwise safe laparoscopic procedures, postoperative shoulder pain is thought to arise from irritation of the phrenic nerve by intra-abdominal CO₂. In a randomized, double-blind, clinical trial that involved 100 women (mean age, 34) undergoing elective outpatient gynecologic laparoscopic surgery, investigators evaluated whether a clinical maneuver at the end of surgery would lower the incidence and intensity of post-laparoscopic shoulder pain. Patients in the control group underwent typical passive exsufflation of residual abdominal CO₂ at completion of their procedures. Patients in the intervention group were placed in the Trendelenburg position (30 degrees), after which the anesthesiologist performed five manual pulm…