Chapters authored
Local Anesthetics Infiltration and Wound Healing Process
It is a good practice, nowadays, to infiltrate local anesthetics along the incision to prevent postoperative pain. This can reduce the use of opioids and the side effects they cause. It is known clearly that the surgical trauma causes inflammatory reaction, and this can be the beginning of a bad cicatrization or even a scar. The use of local anesthetics preventing the acute pain is a very simple technique and has proved to be useful. Nevertheless, the reaction that various anesthetics have over the tissues and the cicatrization process is yet controversial and deserves to be investigated deeply. The use of different formulations of these drugs has been stimulated. The duration and secureness have been the goals of many researches. Levobupivacaine, ropivacaine, and bupivacaine for their long action; lidocaine for less toxicity; and liposomal formulation for the longest duration ever seen, all of them have been indicated in the postoperative pain management. The aim of this chapter is to evaluate the role of long duration local anesthetics on the inflammatory reaction and consequently the collagen production and resistance of the tissue to traction.
Part of the book: Topics in Local Anesthetics