Chronic Back & Neck Pain

The coeliac plexus is a bundle of nerves in the upper abdomen that transmits many of the pain signals from the organs of the abdomen to the brain. The plexus can be temporarily blocked using local anaesthetics or permanently ablated using phenol or alcohol solutions. Blocking of this plexus is undertaken to relieve sever chronic pain. The block is particularly effective for pancreatic pain such as that of pancreatic cancer or acute and chronic pancreatitis as well as other pains of the upper abdomen.

A coeliac plexus block is performed in the radiology suite using either fluoroscopy or a CT scan. This procedure is undertaken on an in-patient basis and does require hospitalisation.