Splanchnic Block at T11 Provides a Longer Relief than Celiac Plexus Block from Nonmalignant, Chronic Abdominal Pain

Abstract

Aim: Neural blockade at the celiac plexus is less specific compared with splanchnic nerve block. This retrospective study compares duration and potency of celiac versus splanchnic block. Patients & methods: Analyzed were data of 16 consecutive patients with visceral abdominal nonmalignant pain treated using both celiac plexus and T11 splanchnic block. Results: Improvement in pain scores was from 7.24 ± 1.0 to 4.1 ± 2.1 for celiac, and 7.8 ± 0.8 to 2.9 ± 2.1 for splanchnic at 4 weeks. Duration of the splanchnic nerve block was superior, median of 56 days versus only 21 days for celiac plexus block. Conclusion: T11 bilateral splanchnic block provided significantly longer relief from chronic nonmalignant abdominal pain, than celiac plexus block (p = 0.001). Reduction in pain severity was more with splanchnic compared with celiac block (p = 0.029).

Keywords::

• celiac plexus block
• chronic abdominal pain
• splanchnic nerve block
• splanchnic nerves
• visceral pain

Financial & competing interests disclosure

The authors have no relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript. This includes employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants or patents received or pending, or royalties.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.

Informed consent disclosure

This is a retrospective electronic chart review. The authors’ state that based on the IRB approval from Forsyth Medical Center (Winston-Salem, NC, USA) no direct consent was required from the patients. Electronic chart review was conducted and no patient identifiers were used in this study. Each electronic record was assigned a number and any patient identifiers were removed once data have been collected.