Stellate ganglion block (SGB) is highly beneficial when used for treating pain syndromes, including acute herpes zoster of the face, postherpetic neuralgia, and sympathetically mediated pain of the head. Horner's syndrome is not reliable as a traditional indicator of successful SGB because of ambiguous and subjective judgment.[1] Cutaneous temperature change was reported to be a simple and objective method for assessing successful SGB.[2] However, temperature increase was only observed at least 10 min after successful SGB, demonstrating that the assessment of skin temperature cannot predict the efficacy of SGB in the early stage.[3] Laser speckle contrast imaging (LSCI) provides a powerful tool for quantitative assessment of flow dynamics for microcirculation over large areas with high spatiotemporal resolution.[4,5] According to our knowledge, LSCI has not been studied as an indicator of successful SGB.
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