Nerve blocks with local anesthetics and corticosteroids in chronic pain: a clinical follow-up study.

During 4 years, 45 patients with various chronic pain conditions were treated with nerve blocks in our clinic. The blocks consisted of injections of local anesthetic and a corticosteroid on one or several occasions. At the end of this time period, the patients' pain was classified from their records as nociceptive, neurogenic, or unknown, according to International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP) criteria. The long-term treatment results were evaluated retrospectively with a questionnaire. Twenty-nine patients had neurogenic pain, 11 patients had nociceptive pain, and, in the remaining 5 patients, the type of pain could not be determined. Only 6 of the 45 patients had pain relief for longer than 1 month. It is concluded that treatment with nerve blocks alone is not very effective as a long-term treatment for chronic pain. Further experimental and systematic clinical studies are necessary to define the ultimate place for nerve blocks in the treatment of chronic nonmalignant pain.