University at Buffalo, 3435 Main St., Buffalo, NY 14214, United States.
Maturitas. 2013 Nov;76(3):221-4. doi: 10.1016/j.maturitas.2013.08.001. Epub 2013 Aug 20.
Stellate ganglion block (SGB) has been used for over 70 years to treat various cervical pain syndromes. Over the past 8 years, 4 different groups have reported on SGB's effects on hot flashes from unblinded, open-label trials. Review of these studies has shown markedly disparate results in terms of the magnitude of hot flash reduction from Baseline with one trial showing a 90% reduction in hot flashes and 3 other trials showing 28-44% reductions in hot flashes. The inconsistencies in these results in addition to the known potentially large (>50%) placebo effects that can occur in randomized controlled hot flash clinical trials make it difficult to render any conclusions regarding the efficacy of SGB for hot flashes at this time. A randomized controlled trial, including a sham saline treatment arm, needs to be performed to properly assess SGB's effects on hot flashes, Methodological challenges with such a study design are addressed and several suggestions are proposed to manage these challenges.
星状神经节阻滞 (SGB) 已被用于治疗各种颈痛综合征超过 70 年。在过去的 8 年中，4 个不同的小组在未设盲、开放标签试验中报告了 SGB 对热潮红的影响。对这些研究的回顾表明，热潮红减少的幅度差异很大，一项试验显示热潮红减少了 90%，而另外三项试验显示热潮红减少了 28-44%。这些结果的不一致性，加上随机对照热潮红临床试验中已知的潜在大（>50%）安慰剂效应，使得目前很难对 SGB 治疗热潮红的疗效得出任何结论。需要进行一项包括假盐水治疗臂的随机对照试验，以正确评估 SGB 对热潮红的影响。对这种研究设计的方法学挑战进行了讨论，并提出了几项建议来管理这些挑战。
