Tolerability of Suprascapular and Median Nerve Blocks for the Treatment of Shoulder-hand Syndrome

Assessing the Tolerability of Suprascapular and Median Nerve Blocks for the Treatment of Shoulder-hand Syndrome - a Feasibility Study

Shoulder-hand syndrome (SHS) in stroke patients is painful and lowers quality of life. Unfortunately, the cause of SHS is not known, diagnosing SHS can be difficult, and treating it can be hard. Recent research has shown that certain nerve blocks are good for treating shoulder pain for stroke patients, but no one has looked specifically as SHS. Investigators think that specific nerve blocks involving a shoulder nerve (the suprascapular, or SSc nerve) and a hand nerve (the median nerve) will be helpful in reducing SHS pain. Investigators will use ultrasound guidance to accurately inject these nerves. These injections have never been described for SHS patients however, so investigators want to make sure people with SHS can go through with the injections without too much pain or discomfort. That is, the investigators want to test the tolerance of these injections for people with SHS. Investigators are also hoping to better understand how consistent a set of diagnostic criteria, called the Budapest criteria, are at diagnosing SHS in order to be able to accurately diagnose this condition.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Complex Regional Pain Syndromes; Shoulder Hand Syndrome
• Intervention / Treatment: Drug: Suprascapular and median nerve blocks

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 5
• Phase: Phase 4

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• Canada
  • Ontario
    • Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, K1N5C8
      • Elisabeth Bruyere Hospital

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years and older (ADULT, OLDER_ADULT)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Subjects are required to be 18 years of age or older and have a presumptive diagnosis of SHS post-stroke with a minimum visual analog scale of 40mm (greater than 40mm is considered moderate pain).

Exclusion Criteria:

• Subjects will be excluded from the study if they have significant cognitive impairment (mini-mental state examination <23) and language deficits (difficulty cooperating due to aphasia) as this may affect their response to the outcome measures. Subjects with uncontrolled hypertension (>180/110), septicemia, and brachial plexus injuries will be excluded. Patients who are blind and deaf will also be excluded, as they will be unable to adequately complete the post-procedure survey and VAS. Patients on anticoagulation medications will also be excluded on a case-by-case basis and medications will be held prior to injection if required for safety. Patients with INR >1.5 will be excluded.

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: OTHER
• Allocation: NA
• Interventional Model: SINGLE_GROUP
• Masking: NONE

Number of Arms

1

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
EXPERIMENTAL: Open label treatment; These patients will receive suprascapular and median nerve blocks for shoulder hand syndrome. Investigators will assess the tolerability of his procedure using pre-defined criteria (outlined elsewhere).	Drug: Suprascapular and median nerve blocks; Ultrasound guided injection of the median and suprascapular nerve of the affected side.; Other Names: Bupivacaine, kenalog

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Number of Participants Demonstrating Tolerability of Suprascapular and Median Nerve Blocks	To evaluate the tolerability of ultrasound-guided suprascapular and median nerve blocks in stroke patients with SHS as determined using the Budapest criteria. Since tolerability is a subjective measure, it will be defined by a composite outcome including: A) Pain score prior to, during, and immediately following the procedure as measured by the visual analog scale (VAS); B) the rate of serious adverse events associated with this procedure; and C) the level of patient acceptance and satisfaction as determined by a validated post-procedure survey.	12 months
Visual Analog Scale (VAS)	Pain scale used to address a difference following intervention. Pain is measured on a horizontal line from 0 to 100mm, with 0 being no pain and 100 being the worst imaginable pain. Participants place a vertical mark on the line indicating their pain intensity.	measured at baseline, within 1 hour after, and 2 weeks post intervention

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Inter-rater Agreement of Budapest Criteria	Investigators will assess the reproducibility of the Budapest clinical criteria for newly suspected cases of SHS. This will be achieved by determining the level of inter-rater agreement between a resident and a staff physician working in stroke rehabilitation. Investigators will thus determine if there is variability in the clinical diagnosis among physicians with different levels of expertise.	12 months

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Ottawa Hospital Research Institute
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: T Mark Campbell, MD, Ottawa Hospital Research Institute

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (ACTUAL): October 15, 2017
• Primary Completion (ACTUAL): October 14, 2018
• Study Completion (ACTUAL): October 14, 2018

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: September 19, 2017
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: September 19, 2017
• First Posted (ACTUAL): September 25, 2017

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (ACTUAL): September 30, 2019
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: September 3, 2019
• Last Verified: July 1, 2019

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: CRPS; Shoulder hand syndrome; Suprascapular nerve block; Median nerve block
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Pathologic Processes; Nervous System Diseases; Disease; Neuromuscular Diseases; Peripheral Nervous System Diseases; Autonomic Nervous System Diseases; Syndrome; Complex Regional Pain Syndromes; Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy; Physiological Effects of Drugs; Central Nervous System Depressants; Peripheral Nervous System Agents; Sensory System Agents; Anesthetics; Anesthetics, Local; Bupivacaine
• Other Study ID Numbers: 20170066-01H

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: YES

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No