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Early Thoracic Sympathetic Block Improves the Treatment Effect for Upper Extremity Neuropathic Pain
Anesthesia & Analgesia, 08/29/2011
Clinical Article
Yoo HS et al. – The results showed that an earlier thoracic sympathetic block (TSB) produced a better outcome for patients with chronic pain syndrome. Thus, early TSB should be performed in patients with chronic pain in the upper extremities.
Methods- Percutaneous TSB was performed in 51 patients, under fluoroscopic guidance.
- Data collected for each patient included age, gender, body mass index, diagnosis, pain intensity, and symptom duration.
- The adjusted odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals for each variable were calculated by logistic regression.
- TSB was more effective in patients with symptom durations of ≤1 year compared with >1 year (P = 0.006; odds ratio, 8.037; 95% confidence interval, 1.808–35.729).
- Patient age, gender, body mass index, diagnosis, and intensity of pre–TSB pain were not associated with TSB effectiveness.
