What is a stellate ganglion block (SGB)?
A stellate ganglion block is a precise, ultrasound-guided injection at a bundle of sympathetic nerves in the neck. Everything below comes from pages NW Regen publishes, graded by how firmly the clinic says each point stands.
The procedure, in one paragraph
NW Regen describes an SGB as anesthetic injected at the sympathetic nerve bundle in the neck under ultrasound guidance, interrupting the route that carries signals triggering fear and anxiety-based responses. Its analogy is a computer restart: the nervous system reset to a pre-trauma state. The phrase "modulating the body's stress response" is the clinic's too, but it sits in a separate claim about managing mental health conditions, not in any account of how the reset happens. The clinic's mental and emotional health page adds a timeline — effects often felt immediately, lasting up to several years.
Firm ground, and everything past it
The clinic grades its own claim, and that sentence is the most useful thing on its service page: an SGB is established for certain pain problems and sympathetic nervous system disorders, while its use across a wider set of conditions involving autonomic dysregulation is called exploratory and off-label. Several listed uses are flagged as investigational, outcomes as variable, candidacy as a provider's call.
The line falls between categories, though, not condition by condition: nothing published says which entries sit on the established side. Read the list below as conditions worth discussing, not settled indications.
What the clinic lists
- Pain and sympathetic conditions — CRPS, reflex sympathetic dystrophy, causalgia after nerve injury, compartment syndrome with autonomic features, autonomic dysfunction in the head, neck or an upper limb, shingles of the face or neck.
- Trauma and stress — PTSD and PTSI, trauma-related and work-related anxiety, panic attacks, depression, postpartum mood disturbance, disturbed sleep and trauma-related nightmares.
- Autonomic and post-viral — dysautonomia, POTS, chronic fatigue syndrome, traumatic brain injury and post-concussive symptoms, distorted or absent smell after a virus.
- Long COVID — fatigue, brain fog and dysautonomia singled out; the Long COVID page adds forgetfulness, trouble concentrating, body aches, headache and difficulty sleeping. More: SGB and Long COVID symptoms.
How the injection is carried out
The detail here is procedural, not evidential. Per NW Regen's own account of its stellate ganglion block procedure, the neck is cleaned on the side being treated and the anatomy reviewed on ultrasound, with a Doppler look at blood supply, before any injection. A small dose numbs the skin; a fine needle then delivers anesthetic slowly onto the stellate ganglion near C6/C7, and again at the upper cervical ganglion near C3/C4.
Treating both levels is what the clinic calls a Dual Sympathetic Reset, described as more complete than the single C6-level block it says most clinics perform; the process begins with an in-depth, hour-long consultation covering health history, needs, and what to expect afterward. More: Dual Sympathetic Reset explained.
Signs the block landed
A successful block can produce Horner's syndrome: temporary signs on the injected side, listed as drooping of the upper eyelid, a constricted pupil, a sunken-looking eye, absent facial sweating, redness in the white of the eye, a stuffy nose and warmer skin there. They fade as the anesthetic wears off, roughly 45 minutes to four hours depending on the agent.
Nerves near the stellate ganglion can also be caught incidentally, producing trouble swallowing, a lump-in-the-throat feeling or hoarseness. Those are temporary too, resolving as Horner's signs do, and no reflection on whether the block worked.
Risks the clinic publishes
Past those expected effects, NW Regen lists soreness at the injection site, hoarseness and a drooping eyelid as common, usually mild, and gone within a few days. It also states that serious complications, while rare, can happen — naming infection, bleeding and nerve damage — and that a qualified provider should weigh those risks against the benefits before anyone goes ahead. That statement sits on an article rather than the service page, which is why it is easy to miss; it is still the clinic's own published account of what can go wrong.
Visits, insurance, and the outcome claim
Two blocks on separate days within a short window is the described standard, on the clinic's reading of the research; travellers are offered the pair 36 to 48 hours apart. Insurance rarely covers it, per the same page, which supplies superbills itemising procedures and coding.
For effect size, the service page cites six-month follow-up of 75 people with diagnosed PTSD given a bilateral two-level cervical sympathetic chain block: 96% improved significantly, symptoms fell 55% on average, improvement passed 70% for some trauma types including sexual assault and childhood abuse, and the benefit was called lasting — one study, summarised by the clinic that performs the procedure. A block is also framed as opening a window for other care, behavioural therapy especially; see the SGB FAQ.
Who performs it
Dr. Ryan Wood has specialised in SGB since 2017 and trains other physicians. The count differs across the three service and condition pages used here — 2,000-plus, 2,500-plus, 3,000-plus — so read it as thousands, not a figure.
Sources
Everything on this page is drawn from pages published by NW Regen: