Local anesthetic

A local anesthetic (LA) is a medication that causes absence of all sensation (including pain) in a specific body part without loss of consciousness, providing local anesthesia, as opposed to a general anesthetic, which eliminates all sensation in the entire body and causes unconsciousness. Local anesthetics are most commonly used to eliminate pain during or after surgery. When it is used on specific nerve pathways (local anesthetic nerve block), paralysis (loss of muscle function) also can be induced.

LAs are of 2 types:

Synthetic cocaine-derived LAs differ from cocaine because they have a much lower abuse potential and do not cause hypertension vasoconstriction (with few exceptions).

The suffix "-caine" at the ends of these medication names is derived from the word "cocaine", because cocaine was formerly used as a local anesthetic.

Short Duration of Action and Low Potency

Medium Duration of Action and Medium Potency

High Duration and High Potency

Local anesthetics may be used to prevent and/or treat acute pain, to treat chronic pain, and as a supplement to general anesthesia.