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        New Message Board Archives >> Medications, Treatments, Therapies 2004 >> CERVICAL GANGLION LYMPHRABETIC BLOCK.
        
(Message started by: pubgirl on Aug 23^rd, 2004, 1:46pm)

Title: CERVICAL GANGLION LYMPHRABETIC BLOCK.
Post by pubgirl on Aug 23^rd, 2004, 1:46pm

Sorry, sorry, sorry, I know there have been threads on this before but I can't make the blinkin' search work at the moment!

What is the general view or specific personal experience of this procedure.

I have a sufferer who is being recommended to have it in South Africa and is being told that it isn't done much in the Uk as we are a 'bit behind'.
My thought is that the opposite is true and we have moved on here because the nerve block is not very successful.

Feedback appreciated

Wendy

Added: Never heard of the "Lymphrabetic" bit but it is what the sufferer has been told it is called

Title: Re: CERVICAL GANGLION LYMPHRABETIC BLOCK.
Post by Margi on Aug 23^rd, 2004, 4:21pm

Hi Wendy,

are they speaking of the sphenopalatine block, do you think? They do that with lidocaine and, at best, it brings temporary relief. Ted had that done a couple of years ago and got a couple of weeks' relief, but that's it.

I think you're probably right - I would imagine the UK has moved on from these kinds of treatments because all they do is relieve the profit line on the clinics' books, rather than the sufferer's pain.

here's some info on that snuffleupagus block thingy:

http://www.bepainfree.com/fig5.htm

p.s. I typed that "Lymphrabetic" into my search engine and got a rap on the knuckles for a spelling error. You think maybe the clinic is trying to dazzle their patients with their big (albeit misued) vocabulary? Or is it the science of counting ones lymph nodes in alphabetic order maybe? I dunno. ::)

Title: Re: CERVICAL GANGLION LYMPHRABETIC BLOCK.
Post by floridian on Aug 23^rd, 2004, 4:28pm

Not sure if this is what you are looking for - for this they did a permanent radio rhizotomy, not a temporary lidocaine block.

Quote:

J Neurosurg. 1997 Dec;87(6):876-80.

Efficacy of sphenopalatine ganglion blockade in 66 patients suffering from cluster headache: a 12- to 70-month follow-up evaluation.

Sanders M, Zuurmond WW.

Department of Anesthesiology, Spaarne Hospital, Haarlem, The Netherlands.

This study was conducted to evaluate the efficacy, based on 12- to 70-month follow-up data, of radiofrequency (RF) lesions of the sphenopalatine ganglion made in patients suffering from cluster headache. Sixty-six patients suffering from either episodic (Group A, 56 patients) or chronic (Group B, 10 patients) cluster headache who were not responsive to pharmacological management were treated by RF lesioning in the sphenopalatine ganglion. Complete relief of pain was achieved in 34 (60.7%) of 56 patients in Group A and in three (30%) of 10 patients in Group B. No relief was found in eight patients (14.3%) in Group A and in four (40%) in Group B. The mean time of follow up was 29.1 +/- 10.6 months in Group A and 24 +/- 9.7 months in Group B, ranging from 12 to 70 months. With regard to side effects and complications, temporary postoperative epistaxis was observed in eight patients and a cheek hematoma in 11 patients; a partial RF lesion of the maxillary nerve was inadvertently made in four patients. Nine patients complained of hypesthesia of the palate, which disappeared in all cases within 3 months. The authors conclude that RF lesioning in the sphenopalatine ganglion via the infrazygomatic approach may be performed in patients suffering from cluster headache that does not respond to pharmacological therapy.

Title: Re: CERVICAL GANGLION LYMPHRABETIC BLOCK.
Post by pubgirl on Aug 23^rd, 2004, 4:33pm

Margi and Jonathan, thanks!

I did a search too. I wonder if this consultant in South Africa is confused and means "cervical sympathetic ganglion"?? That exists

Wendy