Splanchnic Nerve Block as a Bridge Therapy in Painful Chronic Pancreatitis During COVID ۱۹ Pandemic: A Case Report

Agonizing and debilitating pain is what most patients with chronic pancreatitis endure. Chronic pain often leads to depression and poor quality of life. Surgical decompression can result in permanent pain relief by reducing intraductal hypertension. Elective surgical procedures had to be postponed during the Covid-۱۹ pandemic as the resources, including oxygen supplies, workforce, and ventilators, were dedicated to the service of Covid-۱۹ patients. We present a case of ۲۰ year-old-male suffering from severe abdominal pain due to chronic pancreatitis refractory to analgesic medications. Given the refractory pain and inability to proceed with surgery due to the pandemic, we subjected him to undergo splanchnic nerve block (SNB) with local anesthetic and steroid. SNB provided adequate analgesia and enabled the patient to tide over the crisis. To our knowledge, no case has been reported using a combination of local anesthetic and steroid in SNB for a patient with chronic pancreatitis.