Doctors at NorthShore University Health System are treating people suffering from symptoms of long COVID with a nerve block, a procedure that has been used for decades to treat pain.
“As we started to take care of our pain patients that have long COVID symptoms, we actually saw that their pain got better as we treated them with a stellate ganglion block, and their long COVID symptoms got better too,” said Dr. David Dickerson, an anesthesiologist at the NorthShore Integrated Pain Center.
The procedure involves injecting numbing medicine into the neck, freezing a collection of nerves called the stellate ganglion, forcing them to reset.
“The nervous system is actually relearning its activity and going back to that sort of background, baseline function that existed prior to the traumatic event of the COVID infection,” Dickerson said.
43-year-old Jasmine Peña from Hanover Park had a drastic case of long COVID. Peña lost not only her taste and smell, but also control of her legs and bowels, forcing her into a wheelchair.
“One of the scariest is, is when you see yourself being put into a diaper and no doctor has an answer for you,” Peña said.
Jasmine Peña met with Dr. David Dickerson and neurologist Dr. Octavia Kincaid. They recommended a nerve block and the relief was nearly instantaneous.
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“I haven't been in my wheelchair since my very first injection,” Peña said.
Doctors at NorthShore have used nerve blocks to treat hundreds of patience with long COVID symptoms and are working to document their findings.
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“There's a lot of interest around taking things that we know about suppressing inflammation in the nervous system, like the stellate block, and using it to ask questions about long COVID symptom recovery,” Dickerson said.
Peña received two nerve blocks, about three months apart. Together with physical and occupational therapy, she can walk again and recovered her ability to taste and smell as well.
“It gave me a life I didn't imagine,” Peña said.
