Chronic Pain Requiring Stellate, Thoracic, and Lumbar Sympathetic Ganglia Blockade Clinical Trial
Official title:
Recording Sympathetic Nerve Activity From the Skin During Stellate, Thoracic, and Lumbar Sympathetic Ganglia Block : a Pilot Study
Sympathetic nerve activity can be measured transcutaneously in awake patients by computer-based filtering of raw signal obtained via skin leads attached on the chest and the right arm. Electrocardiogram can be removed by applying a high-pass filter setting of 150 Hz. Electromyogram can be filtered by applying a high-pass filter setting of 500 Hz or a band-pass filter setting of 500-1000 Hz. Currently, the therapeutic effect of stellate, thoracic, and lumbar sympathetic ganglia block (SGB, TSGB, and LSGB, respectively) in patients with chronic pain is generally evaluated by using thermogram/thermography (change in temperature of the upper or lower extremeties) or questionnaire-based scoring. However, it is not known whether the skin sympathetic nerve activity (SKNA) can be measured in patients undergoing SGB/TSGB/LSGB and used as an alternative tool for assessing the therapeutic effect of SGB/TSGB/LSGB. Therefore, we planned this pilot study to observe whether the SKNA can be obtained in patients undergoing SGB/TSGB/LSGB and whether it is well correlated to thermogram or questionnaire-based scoring. If the SKNA is observed and decreases after SGB/TSGB/LSGB, it will be presented in milivolt (uV) and compared to that of pre-block values.
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