Editor-in-Chief: Alaa Abd-Elsayed, MD, PhD
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BACKGROUND: With the recent COVID-19 pandemic, chronic pain physicians undoubtedly face the challenge of treating long-COVID within the already complex chronic pain patient population. Sympathetic blockade of the stellate ganglion has historically been utilized as a diagnostic and therapeutic tool in confirming and targeting the sympathetically mediated component of many chronic pain conditions, but its role in treating long-COVID symptoms has yet to be thoroughly studied or elucidated.
CASE SERIES: We present a unique case series where the utilization of stellate ganglion blockade in one case and use of stellate ganglion blockade followed by rhizotomy in another were successful in sustained and near-complete relief of all initial long-COVID symptoms during a 3-month follow-up period.
CONCLUSIONS: Our case series presents promising results on the role of stellate ganglion blockade in the sustained and near-complete relief of multiple long-COVID symptoms during the longest known follow-up period to date.
KEY WORDS: COVID-19, dysautonomia, long-COVID, rhizotomy, stellate ganglion block
