The relationship between “closure” and “nerve block

  When sitting in the pain clinic, I often encounter a very interesting situation: some patients come over and say, “Doctor, I have a lot of pain in a certain place, and I heard from others that you can get rid of it with a shot here, so you should give me a shot quickly. And some patients, when the pain doctor tells them that they need injection therapy or nerve block, the patient as soon as he hears “injection”, he asks “is it a closed injection? It is a kind of “coping therapy”, which can only temporarily stop the pain, and will “loosen the bones”! In fact, these are two misconceptions of pain treatment.  First of all, pain as a symptom is often a symptom of a disease, so the cause of the disease should be clearly identified. Recently, there have been several cases of pain in the ward because of a certain part of the body, and through examination, it was found that the so-called “trigeminal neuralgia” was caused by intracranial occupancy; lumbar and leg pain was caused by bone metastasis of lung cancer; and the so-called “frozen shoulder” was caused by tumor.  In such cases, if the treatment is blind, the natural effect is not good, and repeatedly “playing closed” in small clinics will not only delay the disease but also cause great side effects. For some soft tissue injuries, such as tendinitis, myofasciitis, frozen shoulder, muscle strain, primary trigeminal neuralgia, sciatica, intercostal neuralgia, etc., we inject the drugs into the root of the lesion, instead of hitting where it hurts, which naturally has good efficacy and short duration. At the same time, we have strict requirements and limits on the concentration, dosage and number of injections of drugs, so that the so-called “loose bones” will not happen.  Then we talk about the pain department “nerve block” and “closed” is not the same?  Nerve block therapy is currently the most basic tool in pain management. The international definition of nerve block is to inject drugs into the spinal nerve ganglion, plexus or nerve, sympathetic ganglion and other nerves, these drugs have the effect of regulating the nerve and dilating the microvascular of the lesion, improving the blood circulation of the diseased tissue. Or physical or chemical methods are used to block the nerve conduction function.  Chemical nerve blocks are mostly performed with low concentration of local anesthetics, but also with high concentration of local anesthetics, ethanol, phenol and other nerve-destroying drugs, thus achieving long-term analgesic effects. Physical nerve blocks are commonly performed by thermal coagulation therapy, cryotherapy, and also by mechanical injury methods, such as facial nerve puncture compression for facial muscle spasm.  ”Closed therapy” is commonly known as “focal injection”, originated in the former Soviet Union, also known as procaine closed therapy, is the injection of procaine into the body’s local pain points, like the Chinese medicine said “A is the point “where the pain where the injection, to play a temporary pain relief effect. “Closure therapy” is generally used in the treatment of trauma, strain and degenerative osteoarthrosis of muscles, ligaments, fascia, tendon sheaths, bursae and bone fibers.  Because the “closed” injection contains more prednisolone, dexamethasone and other hormone ingredients, such as long-term repeated application of hormones prone to “bone fragility”, “face swelling”, endocrine disorders and other complications. Endocrine disorders and other complications. Therefore, chronic pain patients need to receive safe and effective “nerve block treatment” in regular hospital pain departments.  In fact, in addition to nerve block, there are many other methods and means to treat pain, including physical therapy, acupuncture, manual release, radiofrequency ablation, ozone ablation, low-temperature plasma ablation, etc., which can be used to cure or relieve pain through comprehensive treatment.