Korean J Anesthesiol.
1982 Sep;15(3):319-326.
Nerve Block for Treatment of Cancer Pain
- Affiliations
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- 1Department of Anesthesiology, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
Abstract
- Intractable pain associated with advanced cancer is an important and complicated clinical problem. One hundred and forty cases with cancer pain were treated by several nerve blocking techniques at the pain clinic of Yonsei Medical Center during 4 year period from January 1978 to December 1981. These cases had intractable pain from non-resectable or recurrent cancer of the stomach (35 cases), pancreas(24 cases), lung (17 cases), uterine cervix(14 cases), rectum (13 cases), colon, lymphoma, liver, gall bladder and the others. After careful evaluation, they were given celiac plexus block with pure and/or 50% alcohol in 73 cses, intrathecal block with 10% phenol glycerine in 19 cases, continuous epidural block with 1% lidocaine in 35 cases and micellaneous nerve blocks including sympathetic ganglion block and local infiltration in 13 cases. Good to excellent pain relief was achieved in the aobve groups as follows: celiac pleuxs, 93.2%: intrathecal, 89.5%: continuous epidural, 60,5%: miscellaneous, 61.5%. Over all after block, life duraion ranged from 2 weeks to 12 months with an average of 2.4 months. When patients are selected carefully, and the block is performed with great caution, risk is minimal, and long lasting relief of intractable pain is possible in the majority of these patients led normal lives until they died.
