Abstract

Lidocaine 2% with and without phenylephrine was used to produce spinal anesthesia in 89 male patients scheduled for cystoscopic procedures. The latent period, extent of analgesia, and duration of analgesia and motor block were recorded and compared for the dose of lidocaine with and without phenylephrine. Increasing doses of lidocaine and the addition of phenylephrine increased the duration of analgesia and motor block but did not consistently influence the extent of analgesia. We concluded that lidocaine 2% produced reliable anesthesia to the lower thoracic segments for 1 to 3 hours depending on the dose and the addition of phenylephrine.