How Do Nerve Blocks Relieve Chronic Pain?
In some individuals who are suffering from chronic pain, we block or freeze the nerve that is transmitting pain impulses from a particular region of your body. The nerve remains frozen for a few hours and when the freezing wears off, patients regain full sensation. When the freezing wears off we often find that the pain is either gone or greatly reduced. This pain relief may last for an extended period of time, and in some individuals it may provide permanent pain relief. Chronic pain results often after some form of injury or accident. The damaged tissues heal over a period of weeks or month, however the nerves that innervate these tissues continue to transmit impulses into the brain were they are perceived as pain. Many pain specialists feel that nerve blocks work by breaking the chronic pain cycle, allowing nerves to “reset” themselves. When the nerve becomes unfrozen rather than transmit aberrant and false pain impulses, it functions in a normal pre injury fashion, only sensing pai
