Costoclavicular brachial plexus block for shoulder surgery: a narrative review
Bibliographic record
Abstract
The costoclavicular block is a proximal approach for blocking the brachial plexus in the infraclavicular fossa. Whether the costoclavicular block offers advantages over lateral paracoracoid approaches has been debated. However, diaphragm-sparing anesthesia for shoulder surgery has recently reignited interest in the costoclavicular space. In this review, we examine the costoclavicular block as an alternative to the interscalene block for shoulder surgery, focusing on minimizing involvement of the phrenic nerve. We conducted a systematic search of MEDLINE, EMBASE, and Google Scholar databases using the search terms "costoclavicular block" and "shoulder surgery," to identify relevant studies published up to April 2025. Only randomized trials meeting rigorous inclusion criteria, i.e., those that were prospectively registered, used blinded assessment, and provided sample size justification, were included. The findings of these studies suggested that local anesthetic deposition in the costoclavicular space can reliably anesthetize the brachial plexus cords, achieving a high rate of suprascapular nerve blockade, while sparing the diaphragm. The effectiveness of the anesthesia and analgesia provided by this block depends on use of the appropriate local anesthetic volume and concentration. Further research is needed to validate these findings. Nevertheless, the evidence to date indicates that the costoclavicular block is a promising alternative for patients at risk of respiratory insufficiency secondary to hemidiaphragmatic paralysis.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.001 | 0.006 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.002 | 0.002 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.005 | 0.006 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.002 | 0.002 |
| Open science | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Research integrity | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.005 | 0.001 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".