Role of ultrasound-guided perineural injection of the posterior antebrachial cutaneous nerve for diagnosis and potential treatment of chronic lateral elbow pain

Objective: To examine diagnostic and therapeutic utility of novel ultrasound-guided perineural injection of posterior antebrachial cutaneous nerve in chronic lateral elbow pain. Materials and methods: We performed a retrospective analysis of ultrasound-guided perineural injection of the posterior antebrachial cutaneous nerve with local anesthetic with or without corticosteroid in patients with chronic lateral elbow pain. Data variables collected included patient demographics, illness course, diagnostic ultrasound findings, immediate pre- and post-injection pain using numeric rating pain scale between 0 and 10, injection complications, and post-injection outcomes. Results: Fifteen patients (9 females and 6 males) with average age 46.9 (range 16–69 years) underwent 20 perineural injections between 2009 and 2019. Patients had on average 84% reduction in pain immediately after the injection (median pre- and post-procedure numeric rating pain scale of 6 and 0, respectively, p < 0.001). Patients had pain relief for an average of 15 h (range 2–48 h) when only local anesthetic was injected, compared with average pain relief of 26.5 days (range 2 h—43 days) when local anesthetic was combined with corticosteroid, p = 0.01. Conclusion: Novel ultrasound-guided perineural anesthetic injections around the posterior antebrachial cutaneous nerve can be performed safely and have diagnostic and potentially therapeutic utility in select patients with chronic refractory lateral elbow pain.