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<span style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small;"><strong>Introduction:</strong> decompressive surgery is relatively common in shoulder pain syndrome. Postsurgical pain hampers the early rehabilitation of these patients and their reincorporation to work and social life. <br /> <strong>Objective: </strong>evaluate and demonstrate the efficacy of the use of the bupivacaine-morphine combination <em>vs</em>. bupivacaine alone, administered through an intra-articular catheter, for postoperative analgesia and rehabilitation in shoulder surgery. <br /> <strong>Methods:</strong> an analytical prospective longitudinal study was conducted with 80 patients of both sexes aged 40-65 cared for at "Dr. Luis Diaz Soto" Central Military Hospital in Havana, which extended from October 2009 to May 2010. The patients were randomly distributed into 2 groups, each with 40 members. In Group I, 2 mg of lyophilized morphine were added to the local anesthetic every 24 hours. In Group II, only 0.25 % bupivacaine (20 mL) was added every 6 hours. Postoperative analgesia was evaluated with the Analog Visual Scale (AVS). Results were compared by means of a chi-square test with a 95 % confidence degree. <br /> <strong>Results:</strong> on average, prolongation of combined postoperative analgesia in Group I was 13.5 hours <em>vs.</em> 4.55 hours in Group II, where only bupivacaine was used during the first 24 hours. A better evolution of pain was also observed in Group I during the next 24 to 48 hours. <br /> <strong>Conclusions:</strong> administration of the anesthetic mixture combined with the analgesic through an intra-articular catheter to relieve postoperative pain in shoulder surgery is more effective, with mild, easily manageable side effects, thus enabling early rehabilitation.</span>