Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine, College of Medicine, Chung-Ang University, Seoul, Korea.
Korean J Pain. 2014 Jan;27(1):81-5. doi: 10.3344/kjp.2014.27.1.81. Epub 2013 Dec 31.
Postherpetic neuralgia (PHN) is one of the most difficult pain syndromes to treat. Invasive treatments may be considered when patients fail to obtain adequate pain relief from noninvasive treatment approaches. Here, we present three cases of PHN in the mandibular branch treated with ultrasound-assisted mental nerve block and pulsed radiofrequency treatment. None of the patients had adequate pain relief from the medical therapy, so we performed the mental nerve block on the affected side under ultrasound assistance. Two patients showed satisfactory pain relief continuously over 12 months without any further interventions, whereas one patient only had short-term pain relief. For the patient had short-term pain relief we performed pulsed radiofrequency treatment (PRFT) on the left mental nerve under ultrasound assistance. After PRFT, the patient had adequate pain relief for 6 months and there was no need for further management.
带状疱疹后神经痛（PHN）是最难治疗的疼痛综合征之一。当患者无法通过非侵入性治疗方法获得足够的疼痛缓解时，可能会考虑采用侵入性治疗。在这里，我们报告了 3 例下颌支 PHN 患者，采用超声辅助下颏神经阻滞和脉冲射频治疗。所有患者在接受药物治疗后均未获得足够的疼痛缓解，因此我们在超声辅助下对患侧颏神经进行阻滞。2 例患者在 12 个月内持续获得满意的疼痛缓解，无需进一步干预，而 1 例患者仅获得短期疼痛缓解。对于短期疼痛缓解的患者，我们在超声辅助下对左侧颏神经进行脉冲射频治疗（PRFT）。PRFT 后，患者疼痛缓解持续 6 个月，无需进一步治疗。
