Nerve blocks are used for pain treatment and management. There are several different types of nerve blocks that serve different purposes.
Often a group of nerves, called a plexus or
ganglion, that causes pain to a specific organ or body region can be blocked with the injection of medication into a specific area of the body. The injection of this nerve-numbing substance is called a nerve block.
How Are Nerve Blocks Used?
Different kinds of nerve blocks are used for different purposes.
Therapeutic nerve blocks are used to treat painful conditions. Such nerve blocks contain local anesthetic that can be used to control acute pain.
Diagnostic nerve blocks are used to determine sources of pain. These blocks typically contain an anesthetic with a known duration of relief.
Prognostic nerve blocks predict the outcomes of given treatments. For example, a nerve block may be performed to determine if more permanent treatments (such as surgery) to block the activity of a nerve would be successful in treating pain.
Preemptive nerve blocks are meant to prevent subsequent pain from a procedure that can cause problems including phantom limb pain.
Nerve blocks can be used, in some cases, to avoid surgery.
Types of Nerve Blocks
Various areas of pain require different nerve block types. Below are a few of the available nerve blocks, followed in parentheses by some of the parts of the body for which they are used.
Trigeminal nerve blocks (face)
Ophthalmic nerve block (eyelids and scalp)
Supraorbital nerve block (forehead)
Maxillary nerve block (upper jaw)
Sphenopalatine nerve block (nose and palate)
Cervical epidural, thoracic epidural, and lumbar epidural block (neck and back)
Cervical plexus block and cervical paravertebral block (shoulder and upper neck)
Brachial plexus block, elbow block, and wrist block (shoulder/arm/hand, elbow, and wrist)
Subarachnoid block and celiac plexus block (abdomen and pelvis)
A pinched nerve can be caused of a variety of conditions, for example, carpal tunnel syndrome, herniated disc, sciatica, arthritis, spinal stenosis, trauma, and more. Common symptoms of a pinched nerve include pain, numbness, tingling, and weakness. Treatment of a pinched nerve depends on the cause of the pinched nerve.
Dry socket is a painful condition that sometimes occurs after a tooth has been pulled. Dry socket can occur if the blood clot protecting the bone and nerves in the hole in the bone where the tooth was pulled becomes dislodged after extraction. In addition to pain, symptoms include bad breath and a bad taste in your mouth. People who smoke, have poor oral hygiene, and those who use birth control pills have a greater likelihood of developing dry socket. This condition may be treated with aspirin, ibuprofen, a nerve block, or medication prescribed by your dentist.
Chronic pain is pain (an unpleasant sense of discomfort) that persists or progresses over a long period of time. In contrast to acute pain that arises suddenly in response to a specific injury and is usually treatable, chronic pain persists over time and is often resistant to medical treatments.
Nerves are like electrical cords that carry information from the brain to the rest of
the body and vice-versa. They are distributed throughout the entire body.
Motor
(efferent) nerves carry information from the brain out to the
body. This allows the brain to send commands to the various organs of the body.
For example, these commands are sent to the muscles causing them to contract
and move, or sends information to the
heart to either beat faster or
slower.
Sensory (afferent) nerves send information from the body back to the brain
for processing, including information about
pain, touch,
taste, temperature, or
other sensations.
The information travels along the nerve by an electrochemical signal, much
like information traveling along an electrical cord. When a nerve is pinched,
the signal is interrupted somewhere along its path.
Chronic Pain RSS
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