Acute pain Acute pain may occur due to trauma, surgery, infection, disruption of blood circulation, or many other conditions in which tissue injury occurs. In a medical setting, pain alleviation is desired when its warning function is no longer needed. Besides improving patient comfort, pain therapy can also reduce harmful physiological consequences of untreated pain. Acute pain can often be managed using analgesics. However, conduction anesthesia may be preferable because of superior pain control and fewer side effects. For purposes of pain therapy,<unk>  drugs are often given by repeated injection or continuous infusion through a catheter.<unk>  drugs are also often combined with other agents such as opioids for synergistic analgesic action. Low doses of<unk>  drugs can be sufficient so that muscle weakness does not occur and patients may be mobilized. Some typical uses of conduction anesthesia for acute pain are: *<unk> bor pain (epidural anesthesia, pudendal nerve blocks) * Postoperative pain (peripheral nerve blocks, epidural anesthesia) * Trauma (peripheral nerve blocks, intravenous regional anesthesia, epidural anesthesia) Chronic pain Chronic pain is a complex and often serious condition that requires diagnosis and treatment by an expert in pain medicine.<unk> s can be applied repeatedly or continuously for prolonged periods to relieve chronic pain, usually in combination with medication such as opioids, NSAIDs, and anticonvulsants. Though it can be easily performed, repeated<unk>  blocks in chronic pain conditions are not recommended as there is no evidence of long-term benefits. Surgery Virtually every part of the body can be<unk> ed using conduction anesthesia. However, only a limited number of techniques are in common clinical use. Sometimes, conduction anesthesia is combined with general anesthesia or sedation for the patient's comfort and ease of surgery. However, many anaesthetists, surgeons, patients and nurses believe that it is safer to perform major surgeries under<unk>  anesthesia than general anesthesia. Typical operations performed under conduction anesthesia include: * Dentistry (surface anesthesia, infiltration anesthesia or intraligamentary anesthesia during restorative operations such as fillings, crowns, and root canals, or extractions, and regional nerve blocks during extractions and surgeries) * Podiatry (cutaneous, nail avulsions, matricectomy, bunionectomy, hammertoe repair and various other podiatric procedures) * Eye surgery (surface anesthesia with topical<unk> s or retrobulbar block during cataract removal or other ophthalmic procedures) * ENT operations, head and neck surgery (infiltration anesthesia, field blocks, or peripheral nerve blocks, plexus anesthesia) * Shoulder and arm surgery (plexus anesthesia or intravenous regional anesthesia) * Heart and lung surgery (epidural anesthesia combined with general anesthesia) * Abdominal surgery (epidural anesthesia/spinal anesthesia, often combined with general anesthesia during inguinal hernia repair or other abdominal surgery ) * Gynecological, obstetrical, and urological operations (spinal/epidural anesthesia) * Bone and joint surgery of the pelvis, hip, and leg (spinal/epidural anesthesia, peripheral nerve blocks, or intravenous regional anesthesia) * Surgery of skin and peripheral blood vessels (topical anesthesia, field blocks, peripheral nerve blocks, or spinal/epidural anesthesia) Diagnostic Tests Diagnostic tests such as bone marrow aspiration, lumbar puncture (spinal tap) and aspiration of cysts or other structures are made to be less painful upon administration of<unk>  before insertion of<unk> rger needles. Other uses<unk>  anesthesia is also used during insertion of IV devices, such as pacemakers and implantable defibrillators, ports used for giving chemotherapy medications and hemodialysis access catheters. Topical anesthesia, in the form of lidocaine/prilocaine (EMLA) is most commonly used to enable relatively painless venipuncture (blood collection) and placement of intravenous cannulae. It may also be suitable for other kinds of punctures such as ascites drainage and amniocentesis. Surface anesthesia also facilitates some endoscopic procedures such as bronchoscopy (visualization of the lower airways) or cystoscopy (visualization of the inner surface of the bladder)
Local anesthetic
Muscle relaxant
Equianalgesic
Inhalational anesthetic
General anaesthetic
Querulant
Analgesic
Local anesthesia