MARANHÃO NETO, TÚLIO.
Resumo:
Fibromyalgia is a relatively common chronic health problem that affects
mainly middle-aged women and causes great harm to the quality of life of patients.
It has in chronic pain its main symptom, being associated with other manifestations,
like fatigue, non-repairing sleeping, cognitive deficits and mood disorders, such as
depression and anxiety. It has a multidisciplinary treatment, including
pharmacotherapy, physical exercises, diet and cognitive therapies. The
sphenopalatine ganglion block consists of a therapeutic procedure for innumerable
pain syndromes, mainly cranial and facial. Although it has several reports in the
literature demonstrating its efficacy, only two clinical trials have been made out to
test its efficacy in fibromyalgic syndrome. The present study consists of a
randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial aimed to compare the
results of sphenopalatine ganglion block with 2% lidocaine and vasoconstrictor
compared to placebo. A total of 38 patients (14 in the control group and 24 in the
experimental group) were randomly assigned to the study and monitored by five
variables: Visual Analogue Scale, Widespread Pain Index, Symptom Severity Scale,
Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire, and The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index. The
results obtained demonstrated statistically significant benefits in those of the
experimental group, with improvement on Widespread Pain Index (p = 0,027),
Symptom Severity Scale (p = 0,044) and Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire (p =
0,043). The Visual Analogue Scale and The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index did not
show benefits of the procedure, with p = 0,508 and p = 0,064, respectively. Thus,
we conclude that sphenopalatine ganglion block has been shown to be beneficial in
the symptomatic relief of fibromyalgia.
