A stellate ganglion block is an injection of medication into a collection of nerves at the bottom of the front side of your neck. It can help treat a variety of circulation and pain conditions, such as complex regional pain syndrome and peripheral artery disease. Researchers are studying how it may help mental health conditions like PTSD.
The stellate ganglion is a bundle of sympathetic nerves located in the front of your neck near your first ribs (these ribs are right underneath your collarbones). You have one on each side of your neck. A ganglion is a collection of nerves. The stellate ganglion is shaped like an oval but may also look like a star (“stellate” means “star”).
The stellate ganglion provides most of the sympathetic nerve signals to your head, neck, arms and a portion of your upper chest. Your sympathetic nervous system is part of your autonomic nervous system. It’s responsible for many functions your body controls without you thinking about them. This can include control of your heart rate, blood pressure, sweating and other functions.
To have a stellate ganglion, two ganglia (more than one ganglion) have to fuse together. The two that need to fuse are the inferior cervical ganglion and first thoracic ganglion. Inferior here means “underneath.” The inferior cervical ganglion passes underneath the last vertebra of the cervical (neck) section of your spine. The first thoracic ganglion exits your spine at the same level as the first thoracic vertebra. That’s the topmost vertebra in the thoracic (upper back) section of your spine.
Only 80% of people worldwide have a stellate ganglion. In everyone else, these ganglia don’t fuse in the usual manner.
Healthcare providers use stellate ganglion blocks to diagnose sympathetically mediated pain (SMP). This is a chronic neuropathic pain condition that happens when your sympathetic nervous system sends pain signals to your brain for unknown reasons.
Providers also use the injections to treat circulation problems, pain symptoms and conditions or nerve injuries, including:
Researchers have been studying the use of stellate ganglion blocks (SGBs) for the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) since 1990. The research has yielded mixed evidence — some people experience an improvement in their PTSD symptoms, while others have no changes. Researchers think the reason SGBs may help PTSD is due to a decrease in nerve growth factor levels. This reduces norepinephrine levels and increased sympathetic nervous system activity that happens with PTSD.
U.S. Food and Drug Administration hasn’t approved SGBs for the treatment of PTSD. But some healthcare providers may use them “off-label” for PTSD — typically only if other treatments aren’t working. More recently, researchers have been studying the use of SGBs for other mental health conditions, including depression, anxiety and psychosis.