University of Nebraska Medical Center, USA

The potential tissue toxicity of local anesthetics and their interference with numerous pathways, among which G-protein coupled receptor pathways, has led to questions on whether local anesthetics may impair wound healing. It should be stressed first that no analgesic is perfect, there is always a trade-off, and side-effects will be found for every drug. Local anesthetics, in that regards, fare very well, with an excellent safety profile, decades of successful use in millions of patients, and, if applied correctly, superior pain relief since the pain is tackled right where it originates. There are two big wound healing scenarios: skin and bone. For both, a typical short course of local anesthetics in form of a single shot, or for a few days using continuous techniques, should be fine to the best of our knowledge. Basic and clinical evidence is presented to illustrate these points.

Reference

1. Huss MK, Felt SA, Pacharinsak C. Influence of pain and analgesia on orthopedic and wound-healing models in rats and mice. Comp Med 2019;69:535–45.