NCT06470581

Thoracic Sympathetic Ganglion Block With Botulinum Toxin Type A

Clinical Effect of Thoracic Sympathetic Ganglion Block With Botulinum Toxin Type A in Patients With Upper Extremity Complex Regional Pain Syndrome: A Prospective Randomized, Double-blind, and Comparative Clinical Trial

• Status: Not Yet Recruiting
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 78 (estimated)
• Sponsor: Seoul National University · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 19 Years – 80 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Not accepted

Summary

Thoracic sympathetic ganglion block is a percutaneous procedure that paralyzes the action of sympathetic nerves transiently by injecting a local anesthetic around the ganglion. It is performed to diagnose and treat sympathetically maintained pain in phantom limb pain or complex reginal pain syndrome patient. The temperature of the affected arm is often lower than that of the opposite side. As a result of the procedure, the patient may experience sympathetic pain relief, such as coldness, stinging, numbness of the upper extremity. If the procedure does not last long, repetitive block or chemical neurolysis or radiofrequency thermocoagulation for the sympathetic ganglion is performed. However, even though in rare cases, chemical neurolysis is known to cause permanent plexus injury radiofrequency thermocoagulation is known to be less successful than chemical neurolysis because it is difficult to identify and stimulate the exact location of the ganglion. Therefore, it is expected that there will be a benefit to the patients if there is a procedure with long-lasting and avoiding injury. Recently, it has been reported that botulinum toxin (BTX) has been successfully used for the treatment of pain disorders. BTX plays a role with blocking the secretion of acetylcholine from the cholinergic nerve endings. Therefore, the use of BTX is expected to prolong the effect of neural blockade because pre-ganglia sympathetic nerves are cholinergic. It is also known that the action of BTX is not permanent and BTX does not exhibit cytotoxicity or neurotoxicity. Therefore, Botulinum toxin type A (BTA) is recommended for the treatment of migraine, myofascial pain syndrome, and neuropathic pain accompanied by allodynia. This study would like show whether thoracic sympathetic ganglion block using BTA has a longer duration than conventional local anesthesia by using prospective randomized, double-blind, parallel group, and comparative clinical trials.

Conditions

• Complex Regional Pain Syndromes

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
DRUG	Botulinum toxin A	Patients were assigned 1:1 to a control group using only local anesthetics (Group A) and a BTX-A group (Group B). In Phase 1, the needle is inserted near the vertebrae T3 under fluoroscopic guidance. An 1 ml of non-ionized contrast medium is injected to evaluate the diffusion pattern, and 3ml of 0.75% ropivacaine is injected. After identifying a temperature increase in the ipsilateral palm within 20 min in the operating room with the prone position, 3 ml of 0.375% ropivacaine and botulinum toxin type A 75 IU mixed with 3 ml of non-preserved saline solution are injected in the patients in the control and botulinum toxin groups, respectively.

Timeline

• Start date: 2024-07-01
• Primary completion: 2026-04-25
• Completion: 2027-04-25
• First posted: 2024-06-24
• Last updated: 2024-06-26