What to Expect: Celiac Nerve Block

Our team of board-certified pain medicine experts has extensive experience treating all forms of pain. Using nerve block treatments, we stop your pain where it starts. In fact, researchers at Stanford are exploring ways to make this treatment even more effective.

If celiac nerve block is right for you, here's what to expect:

1. We give you medication to help you relax and block discomfort (conscious sedation).
2. A pain medicine specialist uses medication to numb an area of skin on your back.
3. With the help of X-ray imaging, we insert thin needles into your back on either side of your spine.
4. We inject a special dye to make sure we have pinpointed the correct area within your celiac plexus.
5. If this injection is successful, we inject pain medication, such as epinephrine or clonidine, to block the nerves from carrying pain information to your abdomen.

How quickly you start to feel relief and how long it lasts is different for each person. In some people, celiac nerve block relieves pain for weeks. For others, relief can last years. You can expect to return to your normal activities once you start feeling better.