Hi,
I had my 4th sympathetic lumbar block yesterday. The first one helped for 2 weeks, the second one didn't help, the third one helped very little and now the fourth one feels like it has made the pain worse. Has anyone experienced getting a block that made the pain worse?????

I had 10 lumbar block procedures done but for the last 4 done they did bilateral blocks, consecutively the benifits seemed to wear off sooner on the right leg that had RSD origionaly.

The 4 blocks done for the other side on the other hand were slowly lasting longer with every block it seemed lasting longer and the sweating was prettymuch nonexistant for a while afterwards.

They were stopped because the right (compensable) side had stopped getting any benifit, so they pulled the plug on the treatments and the 3 month stay at the clinic was ended, shortly after that they plateaued me.

My understanding is that if the blocks stop benifiting or bring any worsening of your symptoms that they do not continue the treatment, that is what my doctor said.

There are types of RSD that do not respond well to blocks usualy right off the bat you and the dr would know, but some doctors want you to try 3 blocks then decide. For diagnostic purposes I believe it is used in some criterias for diagnosing RSD or was.

I did have a couple blocks that made me think I was just kidney punched and a few that brought along some freaky numness in alarming places.. but it was nice to have some relief from the noisy pain..

Hope this helps some,
take care
Sandra

It doesn't happen often, but it is possible to make the pain worse. I have just had one lumbar nerve block done and it made the pain worse for me. I haven't had anymore done since then. I was going to, but I didn't want another one because of how the first one turned out and anyways, the doctor that was gonna do it went out of the country for a vacation and then the doc cancelled it.

Best of luck to you

I had 2 blocks as well. The first one gave me 20 hours of relief. The second one went horribly wrong. I was in severe pain for an hour following the procedure and had no relief from my rsd symptoms. I am not having anymore!! I'm sorry they are not working for you and hope you find something that will help.

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There is a chance with any block that the local anaesthetic has not met it's target therefore there will be little or no relief

Did you have it done under X-ray Image intensifying?
Possibly you are feeling the pain of the actual procedure (which is a little invasive) that you normally wouldn't feel if the block had worked.
Good luck with the next one