Intradiscal therapies are those that involve the placement under imaging guidance of a needle, probe, or similar device into an intervertebral disc with the goal to reduce the patient’s presenting…
Superficial physical agents such as cold, heat, light, friction, and pressure have been used in therapy for thousands of years. Cryotherapy, or the use of cold, is restricted to superficial…
The sympathetic nervous system contains some of the afferent and efferent neural pathways necessary for generation, perpetuation, or treatment of certain clinical pain states. Sympathetic neural blockade may be useful…
Discogenic pain (DP) and internal disc disruption (IDD) imply that the disc is the source of a patient’s spinal pain. As will be discussed further in this chapter, DP is…
Trigeminal neuralgia is a disease characterized by brief, stereotypical episodes of lancinating pain in the trigeminal nerve distribution on a single side. The vast majority of cases affect either the…
Anatomy Occipital neuralgia is one type of cervicogenic headache described as pain in the distribution of the greater and/or lesser occipital nerve(s), associated with posterior scalp dysesthesia and/or hyperalgesia. The…
Anatomy The supraorbital nerve (SON) is purely a general sensory (afferent) nerve. The supraorbital nerve is a continuation of the frontal nerve, which is one of the three main branches…
The use of ultrasound guidance to perform nerve blocks has been the most exciting development in the field of regional anesthesia in recent years. Instead of blindly advancing the needle…
The clinical description of pain, numbness, and tingling involving the anterior and lateral thigh, was first described by Bernhardt in 1878. Werner Hager (1885) was the first to describe compression…
Intercostal nerve block can be useful in the management of acute and chronic pain, thoracic radicular pain, or chest wall pain. It is performed with or without image guidance. This…
