[Echo-guided percutaneous celiac plexus block with alcohol with an anterior approach].

The authors report the use of ultrasound as a guide to the execution of celiac plexus alcoholization with the anterior approach. Five patients with severe pain resistant to pharmacologic treatment with NSAID, cortisone and morphine have been treated. Once found out the celiac trunk and the best direction, using ultrasound, the needle is advanced slowly beyond the anterior lateral wall of the aorta, in order to recognize the tip with the same ultrasound response of the retroperitoneal tissue. After calculating the distance between the celiac trunk and the needle tip, this is withdrawn in order to be set in the alcoholization point of injection. No complication directly related to the technique has been observed in the five patients. Pain relief was optimal in four out of five patients and was kept until the exitus.