Abstract
The use of nerve blocking to diagnose or treat pain has not received a fraction of the interest shown in regional anesthesia in surgical practice. In view of the optimistic results of therapeutic nerve blocking not only to relieve pain but also to arrest physiologic disturbances, a plea is made for greater appreciation of its advantages, more energetic exploration of its possibilities. Certainly in intractable pain if some type of physiologic nerve section is possible it should have precedence over addicting drugs or radical and often mutilating surgical procedures.