A Comparison of Dexamethasone and Triamcinolone for Ultrasound-guided Occipital C2 Nerve Blocks
Withdrawn before enrolling · Phase 4
Conditions studied: Headache
In brief
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.
Key facts
- Study ID
- NCT02655523
- Run by
- Northwestern University
- People needed
- 0
- Starts
- 2015-12-01
- Expected to finish
- 2022-06-01
- Last updated by the study team
- 2022-06-23
Who can join
Age: 18 and older, up to 75. Sex: any. Healthy volunteers: not accepted.
You may qualify if…
- All patients, ≥ 18 years of age and under 75 years of age, presenting to the Northwestern Pain Center with occipital headaches who are scheduled to receive a ultrasound-guided occipital nerve block will be eligible for the study.
- Extracranial tenderness or Tinel's sign over the occipital nerve
- Poor response to other medical treatments (narcotics, physical therapy)
- Paroxysmal stabbing pain, with or without persistent aching between paroxysms, in the distribution(s) of the greater, lesser and/or third occipital nerves
- Visual Analog Scale (VAS) score of at least 4 at recent headache occurrence.
You may not qualify if…
- Abnormal cranial anatomy
- use of anticoagulants
- local infection
- refusal of or lack of consent
- pregnant patients
- systemic steroid in the last three months, steroid injection of any type in the last three months
- inability to read
- untreated/inadequately treated psychiatric disorders
- cannot comprehend or complete the questionnaires
- known allergies to local or steroids
Where it is running
- Northwestern University, Feingberg School of Medicine — Chicago, Illinois, United States
Full record on ClinicalTrials.gov
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