Pain

What it is?

Topical anesthetics decrease pain during cutaneous procedures in the outpatient setting and permit a variety of dermatologic procedures to be performed without anatomic distortion from local anesthetic injection. As the number of in-office dermatologic procedures continues to grow, practitioners will benefit from awareness of the indications, pharmacologic mechanisms, appropriate methods of application, and safety profiles of the currently available prescription and over-the-counter (OTC) topical anesthetics.

Treatment

Local anesthetic – Betacaine

About Treatment

Local anesthetic — lidocaine, prilocaine and phenylephrine (BETACAINE LA OINTMENT)
Topical anesthetics are being widely used in numerous medical and surgical sub-specialties such as anesthesia, ophthalmology, otorhinolaryngology, dentistry, urology, and aesthetic surgery. They cause superficial loss of pain sensation after direct application. Their delivery and effectiveness can be enhanced by using free bases; by increasing the drug concentration, lowering the melting point; by using physical and chemical permeation enhancers and lipid delivery vesicles. Various topical anesthetic agents available for use are eutectic mixture of local anesthetics, ELA-max, lidocaine, epinephrine, tetracaine, bupivanor, 4% tetracaine, benzocaine, proparacaine, Betacaine-LA, topicaine, lidoderm, S-caine patch™ and local anesthetic peel. While using them, careful attention must be paid to their pharmacology, area and duration of application, age and weight of the patients and possible side-effects.

Local anesthetic -Tetracaine

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Local anesthetic -Prilocaine
About Treatment
Pain / Anesthetics Surgery

What is local anesthesia?

Written by Joseph Nordqvist Knowledge Center

• Local anesthesia involves numbing a specific part of the body to prevent any feeling of pain during surgical procedures. An anesthetic drug – which has numbing effects – is applied to a certain part of the patient’s body.
• It is typically carried out in combination with sedation – which calms the patient and reduces stress levels – so that patients can undergo surgery without experiencing unbearable pain or distress.
• In many cases local anesthesia is considered to be safer than general anesthesia (such as in a cesarean section). Although it is not uncommon for anesthetists to combine methods of both local and general anesthesia.
• According to The Nemours Foundation, the type of anesthesia used will depend on many factors, including patients’ age, weight, allergies they may have, what part of the body is to be operated on, and their current medical condition.
• As local anesthesia only lasts for a short time, it is primarily used for minor outpatient procedures, where the patient can leave on the same day of the surgery.
• Local anesthesia not used just for surgery
• In addition to being used to reduce pain during surgery, local anesthesia is sometimes applied to help diagnose the cause of some chronic conditions, it is also used for pain relief following an operation (postoperative pain relief).
• A team of scientists at the Rothman Institute at Jefferson showed that local anesthesia is probably more beneficial than traditional opioids for managing pain after total knee replacement surgery.
• Researchers at Uludag University School of Medicine, Bursa, Turkey, reported in the World Journal of Gastroenterology that the use of local anesthetics may ease symptoms of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).
• Local anesthetics may be effective for treating neuropathic pain, researchers from the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas, reported in The Cochrane Library. Ivo W. Tremont-Lukats, M.D., wrote “Intravenous lidocaine and oral derivatives relieve pain from damage to the nervous system. ….(these drugs) were safe in controlled clinical trials for neuropathic pain, were better than placebo and were as effective as other analgesics.”

Treatment used for
Local anesthetics are membrane stabilizing drugs that achieve anesthesia by acting on certain nerve pathways, stopping pain signals being sent by the nerves to the brain.

The structures of synthetically made anesthetics are very similar to cocaine. However, unlike cocaine, these drugs do not have the same abuse potential.

Doctors can determine how long the effects will last depending on the amount and strength of the solutions they use.

Generally, the numbing effects of a local anesthetic last from anywhere between half an hour to four hours.

Adverse effects of local anesthetic agents may include:

• depressed CNS syndrome
• allergic reaction
• cyanosis – the skin becomes bluish, this is caused by either poor circulation or inadequate oxygenation of the blood