A nerve block is the injection of either a local anaesthetic or a drug that inactivates nerves to control otherwise uncontrollable pain. Nerve blocks can be used to determine the source of pain. This book offers information on the nerve blocking techniques that are available in practice.

This book is a succinct, practical, clinically-based guide to nerve blocking techniques that are available in current practice. A nerve block is the injection of either a local anesthetic or a drug that inactivates nerves to control otherwise uncontrollable pain. Nerve blocks can be used to determine the source of pain, to treat painful conditions that respond to nerve blocks, to predict how the pain will respond to long-term treatments, and to prevent pain following procedures.

Karen Simpson and Fiona Hicks have put together their extensive collective experience to produce a clear and succinct text that manages both to set out the clinical problems and also to summarize the various techniques that are used currently . . . This is a short and very readable book which I would recommend as essential reading for any medical or nursing profesional who is involved with the management of patients with cancer-related pain. My copy has sat easily in by brief case since it arrived through the post, and I have used it both for reference and as a teaching aid. It's been much more useful than those large, erudite tomes that are either gathering dust in my office or serving as a doorstop!