Celiac Plexus Block

Chronic abdominal pain is a condition that affects millions of people in the United States. With conditions such as Celiac Disease, Irritable Bowl Syndrome, and Crohn’s Disease on the rise, doctors are seeing more and more cases of pain resulting from pain in the gut or abdominal cavity. For a long time patients either had to deal with the pain on their own or they had to take constant medications to control it. However, thanks to advances in technology, a minimally invasive option is available known as a Celiac Plexus Bock.

A celiac plexus block is an injection of local anesthetic into or around the main artery in the abdomen known as the celiac plexus, which surrounds the aorta. In many conditions that cause chronic abdominal pain, the nerves in the celiac plexus carry pain information from the gut or abdominal tissues back to the spinal cord and brain. A celiac plexus block is performed to block the celiac plexus of nerves that go to various organs and parts of the abdomen. This block is done to reduce pain in the abdomen as treatment for chronic pancreatitis and other chronic abdominal pain.

The block procedure is an injection that takes from 10 to 30 minutes. The injection consists of a local anesthetic and sometimes a steroid medication into or around the celiac plexus. This block can also serve physicians as an important diagnostic tool in order to pinpoint the source of the abdominal pain.

If you have been living with chronic abdominal pain contact a celiac plexus block specialist who can help you find relief from your pain in order to get you back to an active lifestyle.

Posted on behalf of Ortho Sport and Spine

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