Canadian Journal of Anesthesia, Vol 22, 208-218, Copyright © 1975 by Canadian Anesthesiologists' Society

The Use of Intrathecal Phenol for Muscle Spasms in Multiple Sclerosis

A Description Of Two Cases

¹ Department of Anaesthesia, Hamilton Civic Hospitals and McMaster University

Two cases of multiple sclerosis are described, in both of whom the disease started in young adult life. This disability gradually progressed to the stage of paraplegia-in-flexion in which the lower limbs were fixed in adduction-and-flexion. Both patients developed painful muscle spasms which made life intolerable.

These patients were treated by intrathecal phenol, in glycerine in an effort to convert this spastic paralysis into a flaccid paralysis. The three advantages sought were:

1. To relieve the muscle spasms so that the patient could sit in a wheelchair and propel herself.

2. To relieve the pain of the spasms.

3. To allow access to the perineum for proper hygienic care of bladder and bowel function.

The first patient obtained an excellent result (Figures 1, 2, 3) but blocks had to be repeated after approximately five months.

The second patient after the block developed a good result in the right leg, but still had mild, but painless spasms in the muscles of the left leg (Figures 4 and 5). However, she was able to use a wheelchair and was discharged to a chronic hospital where she died of bulbar paralysis six months later.

Intrathecal phenol thus appears to be a useful method for relieving muscle spasms and pain in the lower extremities in advanced cases of multiple sclerosis.