[The effect of stellate ganglion block on prolonged post-operative ocular pain]

There are cases when ocular pain persists long after ocular surgery and can not be reduced by anti-inflammatory drugs. Our purpose was to evaluate the effect of stellate ganglion block(SGB) on such prolonged post-operative ocular pain.

The subjects were 35 patients. Divided into two groups. One we called the nociceptive pain group, containing 29 cases in which the trigeminal nerve in the orbit or passing through it was intact. The other we called the neuropathic pain group, containing 6 cases in which pain accompanied paralysis of the trigeminal nerve. SGB was performed two times per week. SGB was deemed effective when pain was reduced markedly and the administration of anti-inflammatory drugs became almost unnecessary.

SGB was 96.6% effective in the nociceptive pain cases with the SGB performed an average of 5.9 times. On the other hand, in the neuropathic pain group, even though SGB was performed an average of 52.6 times it was only 66.7% effective.

SGB may be useful for the treatment of prolonged post-operative ocular pain, but the elimination of neuropathic pain is more difficult than the elimination of nociceptive pain.