Supreme Court Upholds Authorization of Nerve Blocks

The West Virginia Supreme Court upheld the authorization of bilateral medial branch nerve blocks for a worker’s back injury. Case: Blackhawk Mining v. Argabright, No. 25-274, 09/16/2025, published. Facts and procedural history: Harris Argabright worked for Blackhawk Mining LLC. He suffered injuries to his back and pelvis while at work in February 2021. Argabright underwent a lumbar spine X-ray the day after his accident. The results revealed no acute lumbar spine abnormality; mild grade 1 retrolisthesis of L3 on L4 with mild L3-L4 disc space narrowing that was about the same as i...