TYPES
Nerve blocks may be brief or lengthy. After numbing where the needle enters the skin, health care providers can give them local anesthesia. During operation, this can also obstruct pain signals to an area by intentionally slicing or harming those nerves.
Surgical Nerve Blocks:
- Sympathetic blockage: in 1 specific area, the health care provider gives a drug to block the pain from the sympathetic nervous system.
- Neurectomy: The surgical removal of a damaged peripheral nerve.
- Rhizotomy: The surgeon removes the nerve root, which extends from the spine.
Non-surgical types of nerve blocks:
- Anesthesia / Epidural Analgesia: Medicine may be injected outside the spinal cord by the health care provider.
- Spinal or analgesic anesthesia: The clinician can inject medicine into the fluid that surrounds the spinal cord.
- Blocking of the peripheral nerves: The health care provider may inject a dose, which causes pain around a target nerve.
BENEFITS
Chronic or long-term illness, post-operative pain, and extreme acute or short-term pain may be managed with nerve blocks. Nerve blocks ameliorate suffering by supplying instant relief. They can also provide long-term assistance, as some injections reduce nerve inflammation and allow it to heal.
It can help chronic pain patients work well in their everyday lives, helping them get to work, exercise, and accomplish their daily tasks.
Temporary blockages of nerves are always short-term. After the drugs wear off, the pain can return within a few hours. Some people may need regular or even long-term treatments with nerve blocks to relieve inflammation and pain.
RISKS
- Infection at the injected site
- Unintended drug transfer to the bloodstream
- Unintentional administration of drugs to other nerves
While fluoroscopy or CT is used, low-level radiation would be negligible.