A & A case reports
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The use of regional anesthesia including paravertebral blocks has been advocated for the treatment of pain from rib fractures in adults. Although paravertebral nerve blocks have been used in pediatric patients to manage postoperative pain for surgeries to the thorax and abdomen, their use for analgesia after rib fractures and thoracic trauma has not been reported. We report the use of a T7 continuous paravertebral nerve block for pain relief in a 5-week-old, 5-kg infant who suffered T7 and T8 rib fractures and a pulmonary contusion to the left chest secondary to a gunshot wound.
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Spinal cord stimulation is a treatment modality used to treat various chronic pain conditions, including complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS). We present a case in which spinal cord stimulation was used for the treatment of lower extremity CRPS in a patient with ankylosing spondylitis. ⋯ The sacral hiatus remained open and was used to access the epidural space, facilitating the placement of 2 thoracic epidural electrodes. The resulting stimulation controlled not only the patient's lower extremity CRPS pain but also alleviated his chronic axial pain secondary to ankylosing spondylitis.