Review article

Non anesthetic action of local anesthetics

ALAIN BORGEAT ; Department of Anesthesiology, Balgrist University Hospital, Forchstrasse 340, CH-8008 Zurich / Switzerland

Abstract

Local anesthetics are not only used as drugs to block the sodium channel to provide analgesi and anti-arrhythmic action. The purpose of this review is to highlight the new indications and limitations of this class of drugs. Recent research has focused on the use of i.v. local anesthetics to improve bowel function after surgery or trauma, to protect the central nervous system, to find new clues of local anesthetic effects in chronic neuropathic pain and to investigate the long-term effect of anesthesia / analgesia provided by local anesthetics on cancer recurrence. Recent facts dealing with myo- and chondrotoxicity are presented. There is growing evidence that local anesthetics have a broad spectrum of indications aside analgesia and anti-arrhythmic effect. Most of them are still insufficiently known and investigated. These new indications will no doubt be intensively studied in the coming years.

Keywords

Local anesthetics; neuroprotection; chronic pain; intrathecal administration; antimicrobial properties; cancer recurrence; myotoxicity; chondrotoxicity

Hrčak ID:

105951

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/105951

Publication date:

1.6.2013.

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