00:00
Local anesthetics
are used as an adjunct to opiates.
Either by way of Neuraxial
analgesia, or by epidural for instance,
or by subarachnoid block
as in a spinal. They produce loss of sensation,
muscle weakness and hypotension.
00:19
And they can't be used long term because, if you're
using local anesthetics to control your pain, you lose
muscle activity and motor activity,
as well as the pain. So they're
used really just as a test to see if you
can get rid of the pain rather than
a treatment. Nerve blocks. There's probably 50 different
nerve blocks, which are done by anesthesiologists
and block clinics to reduce pain. Some of them
work quite well. None of these blocks
produce permanent relief, but they can
produce temporary relief in some situations.
00:55
And permanently relieve
the pain in some situations
and we don't know why! So, most of the time
it's a temporary loss of pain. In a rare situation,
the pain goes away and never comes back,
we have no idea why that happens. These drugs
can be delivered in every mode you can imagine.
From oral, rectal, intramuscularly, intravenously,
neuraxialy as I've mentioned, transcutaneously,
epidural infusions, neuromodulation,
there's all kinds of ways of treating
this kind of pain.