I have had 4 surgeries in my right arm since getting RSD from TOS surgery on my right side. The second surgery was rotator cuff surgery that brought the RSD out again from where I had blocks. I then had an ulner nerve surgery and had a block before they took me into surgery. When I had my 2nd rotator cuff surgery the Ortho did a block and it kept the RSD from spreading. When I had my surgery on my triggerfinger last year, my hand surgeon did a bier block and it kept the RSD from spreading.

Nowadays it seems like the surgeons think to do blocks without asking but I always ask them if they will do one just in case. So far it has done the job.

I would ask if they are going to do a block before the surgery. There is no 100% guarantee that it will work but they have for me every time.

I realize people say to avoid surgeries but there are times we can't do it. If we want to use our arms or hands again or be able to have our knees work for us we sometimes can't avoid surgeries as I said.

Good luck to him.
Ada