[Puncture-sonographic alcohol neurolysis of the celiac plexus. A new technic for the therapy of severe chronic upper abdominal pain].

: Coeliac plexus nerve block by alcohol through a percutaneously introduced, ultrasonically guided, small needle was performed in 36 patients with severe chronic upper-abdominal pains, 32 of them with malignant and four with benign disease. In 11 patients there was lasting, in eight transitory freedom from the pain, while in five other patients there was a definite diminution of pain, and the use of analgesics and especially opiates was discontinued or at least markedly reduced. Body-weight increased in 14 patients. In a woman with chronic pancreatic pain who had several previous operations alcohol injection triggered off an acute attack of pancreatitis which ended fatally.