Current trends and developments in the field of local anaesthetics

Abstract

Local anaesthetic agents belong to a surprisingly homogenous family of drugs that are able temporarily to interrupt impulse transmission along nerves in a relatively predictable and reversible manner. During the past hundred years, more efficacious, safer, and varied types of local anaesthetic agents have been developed. Since the mechanisms by which these drugs block impulse conduction are becoming better understood, many responses to nerve block can be readily explained in physiologic terms 4• Such basic understanding is important to the clinician, especially when complications arise or his block is only partly successful. The purpose of this paper is to summarize current knowledge regarding the areas of drug development, basic mechanism of local anaesthesia, clinical pharmacology of local anaesthetic drugs, and comparative effects of regional and general anaesthesia. It is emphasized that the bibliography is not a complete list of the vast literature but merely intends to list major reviews on the subject.