Is your patient showing adverse reaction after administering local anesthetic? What are the strategies to manage such reaction? The article provides a brief outline of such strategies. Local anesthetics (LA) have been in use for over a century. Local anesthetics block the sensation of a particular tissue or area making the invasive procedure less painful. Local anesthetics can be administered by topical, infiltrative, nerve block, spinal or epidural routes.
The adverse reaction to LA is common but it is rarely an allergic reaction to LA. True hypersensitivity (IgE mediated reaction) to LA accounts for <1% of total adverse reactions. Ester –type LAs have been mostly associated with allergic reactions. It is due to their structural similarity with para-aminobenzoic acid (PABA) which is known to be allergenic. Other classes of LAs are rarely associated with allergic reactions and these…
