Nerve Blocks in St. Louis

Pain is a signal traveling along a nerve. A nerve block places local anesthetic directly around that nerve, interrupting the signal before it reaches the spinal cord and brain. A steroid is sometimes added to reduce inflammation around the nerve and extend the effect. Because the anesthetic works within minutes, the response tells us something immediately.

This dual role is what makes blocks central to interventional pain medicine. If numbing one specific nerve abolishes your pain, that nerve is the pathway carrying it. That is information no scan can provide, because imaging shows structure rather than which structure hurts. A positive block both relieves pain and unlocks the next step, whether that is radiofrequency ablation or neuromodulation of the confirmed target.

We perform selective nerve root blocks for radicular pain, stellate ganglion blocks for upper-body sympathetic pain, lumbar sympathetic blocks for lower-limb sympathetic pain and complex regional pain syndrome, celiac plexus blocks for upper abdominal pain, and sphenopalatine ganglion blocks for cluster headache and facial pain.

Every block is performed under image guidance, using ultrasound or fluoroscopy according to the target. Most take fifteen to thirty minutes and are performed on an outpatient basis. We ask you to track your pain over the hours that follow, since the timing and degree of relief is the diagnostic result we are looking for.