What the heck is a Nerve Block?

You are an athlete. Competitive athletes injure themselves and occasionally injure themselves so severely that they need surgery. It just goes with the territory and is widely accepted as part of the price you pay to compete at a high level.

But what also occurs with surgery? Pain. Often times severe pain. You are probably familiar with the common pain pills widely prescribed to treat this type of pain. Possible side effects include constipation, nausea, vomiting, not to mention if you take too many you will either fry your liver or quit breathing, and there is always the potential of long term addiction.

But there is another way to help control postoperative pain. It is known as a peripheral nerve block. To accomplish a nerve block an anesthesiologist first has to identify where the great nerves that feed the area undergoing surgery are located. He does this either with an ultrasound machine or a nerve stimulator. Once they are identified, he injects local anesthetic around the nerves. This is similar to when the dentist injects Novocain before beginning a dental procedure.

Over approximately 15 minutes the targeted area will slowly go numb. This numbness will continue throughout the surgery and even into the recovery phase at home. Most peripheral nerve blocks wear off at 12-15 hours but there are multiple ways that they can be extended out if desired. This includes placing an indwelling catheter to continuously inject local anesthetic after surgery, to new varieties of local anesthetic that have a longer effect.

Risks of peripheral nerve blockade include bleeding, infection, and even lasting nerve damage. However, all of these risks are very rare and peripheral nerve blocks are done across the country daily with great success.

James W. Stephens, DO