Originally Posted by Sheri_TOS

I would second Marc’s research and advice wholeheartedly. Personally, I have had the brachial plexus blocks for surgeries on both shoulders. The block makes the arm completely numb for 12 to 24 hours.

I, too, have had cervical (and lumbar) facet injections. When the neck was the problem, the injections worked and the c-spine settled down, allowing the doctors to realize there was a shoulder injury. The shoulder was fixed and the neck has been much better since then. I still will need to have a c-spine fusion but I’ve gained several years avoiding the fusion by getting the shot plus it allowed another problem to stand out.

Last year, I allowed a physiatrist do a cervical spine block because she insisted my arm symptoms were coming from the neck (C5/C6). I let her do one spine block which did nothing for the arm. In this case, the block ruled out the c-spine. For me, the scalene blocks and botox shots provided relief both this time and when I dealt with TOS about 8 years ago on the other side.

It would be good to try to rule out as much as possible before committing to surgery; otherwise, surgery may not be successful. The shots are one step towards this. I know several people who were all set to have TOS surgery only to find out that it was a shoulder or spine problem. Another person had two TOS surgeries (same side) only to find out that she really needed her neck fused from C5 to C7.



In my case, the cervical pain isn't constant.