The treatment of pain occurring after lumbar operation is often difficult. Such pain is often referred to as ‘failed back syndrome’, it is also a significant problem in the field of orthopedic surgery. We treated 4 patients who experienced persistent pain following operations.
Case 1 and Case 2 were following lumbar spinal stenosis, while Case 3 and Case 4 were following lumbar disc herniation. All patients showed improvement after operations, but the symptoms returned within one year. We treated them with lumbar sympathetic ganglion block (LSGB), which caused a significant reduction in their symptoms. LSGB is thought to be a useful therapy for prolonged pain occurring after lumbar operations.