Is stellate ganglion block (SGB) really useful for the therapy of ocular diseases? In order to answer this question, SGB has been applied to the cases which couldn't be recovered by general methods. As a result, the following five ocular diseases were thought to be good indications for SGB.
1) Prolonged post-operative ocular pain
16 cases were treated by SGB. 6 cases were deafferentation pain. SGB was effective in 4 of 6 cases. 10 cases were non-deafferentation pain. SGB was very effective in all of them.
2) Scleritis
SGB was applied to 6 cases. All of them were recovered by SGB.
3) Central retinal artery occulusion
In 10 of 15 cases, visual acuity improved. The improvement was caused by the decrease of macular edema.
4) Cystoid macular edema after cataract surgery
35 cases were treated by SGB. All of them got improved visual acuity.
5) Central exudative chorioretinopathy
In 34 of 43 cases which were treated by SGB, visual acuity improved. On the other hand, in 22 cases of the non-SGB control group, visual acuity improved in only 6 cases.
