Suspected C5 Nerve Root Injury Temporally Associated With Stellate Ganglion Block for Refractory Insomnia: A Case Report

Description

Xiaochen Ji, Zhiqiang Niu, and Yabo Wang report a suspected nerve injury following a stellate ganglion block given for stubborn insomnia. The procedure injects local anesthetic beside a neck nerve cluster to calm the autonomic nervous system, and its use has spread into sleep medicine. Their patient, a forty-nine-year-old woman, felt radiating shoulder pain the moment the block was placed.

Her right upper arm went numb on its outer side and her deltoid muscle weakened, a pattern pointing to the fifth cervical nerve root. Electrical testing of muscle and nerve supported an acute injury at that root. The authors stop short of claiming proof, since timing alone cannot establish that the needle caused the damage. They use the case to press practical cautions: watch the needle tip continuously under imaging, halt at the first radiating pain, check neurology promptly, and report uncertainty honestly when publishing complications.

Catalog record

Source: https://europepmc.org/article/MED/PMC13621567