What Is A Nerve Block For Pain Relief?

If the pain is severe then sometimes nerve block treatment is used to provide relief from the severe pain. Nerve block interrupts the signal sent to the brain by interrupting them and thus provides pain relief. In this technique, a substance such as alcohol or phenol is into a nerve or surrounding it or may be injected into the spine. Nerve block technique is used for the following purposes:

  1. It can be used to determine the source of pain.
  2. It will help the patient to deal with painful situations.
  3. It can be useful in prediction as what will be the response of the pain to long term   treatments.
  4. If some surgery is carried out such as finger surgery, then it can work as anesthesia for small operations.

There are two types of pain: acute pain and chronic pain. Acute pain can be treated using medicine but chronic pain may not be relieved using medicines and treatments and the patient may also have to suffer with side effects of the drugs. At such times nerve blocks can be useful in treating it.  The period of numbness caused by nerve blocks depends on the type of drug used. For chronic nerve block may have to repeat after 6 to 12 months.