Abstract
Many anesthesiologists perform invasive treatments, such as nerve blocking, and non-invasive treatments with analgesics for relief of chronic pain. In recent years, however, invasive treatments are less and less selected due to the progression of drug therapy, especially opioid analgesics, and increasing use of anticoagulants against cardiovascular diseases in patients with pain. Nerve blocking is useful for diagnosis of chronic pain. It is also useful to confirm minor pathological changes associated with pain and support clinical diagnosis of pain. Moreover, malignant diseases are often detected when the expected analgesic effect is not observed after appropriate nerve blocking. Therefore, nerve blocking is a useful method of chronic pain treatment, and anesthesiologists should be well-versed in both invasive and non-invasive treatments. Anesthesiologists should carefully evaluate chronic pain taking into consideration the mental condition of patients as well.
