A Comparison of Dexamethasone and Triamcinolone for Ultrasound-guided Occipital C2 Nerve Blocks
Status:
Active, not recruiting
Trial end date:
2022-12-01
Target enrollment:
Participant gender:
Summary
Greater occipital nerve (GON) injection is a commonly performed diagnostic and therapeutic
procedure in headache patients. GON blocks have been shown to be effective in the treatment
of a variety of headaches including occipital neuralgia, migraine, vascular headache, cluster
headache, cervicogenic headache, and post-concussive headache. Local anesthetic and steroids
have been successfully used for diagnostic and or therapeutic nerve pain such as lumbar
radicultis with great success. Dexamethasone is a water soluble steroid, when combined with
local anesthetic; it may increase the analgesia of block duration relative to its
pharmacokinetics. When compared to dexamethasone, triamcinolone, a particulate steroid has a
slower onset time but may provide anti-inflammatory effects up to several weeks.
Investigators want to investigate to see if there exists a difference in reported pain
intensity using the particulate anti-inflammatory corticosteroid (triamcinolone with
bupivacaine) which may provide a greater reduction in reported pain intensity relief may
allow the patient to undergo fewer interventional procedures.