Skip to content
EntityQ1868462· pop 32· linked from 912 articles

local anesthetic

Sign in to save

Also known as Conduction-Blocking Anesthetics, Anesthetics, Conduction-Blocking, local anesthetics, local anaesthetic, local anaesthetics, Anesthetics, Local

medication that causes reversible absence of pain sensation

Wikidata facts

Show 2 more facts
topic's main category
Category:Local anesthetics
Commons category
Local anesthetics
Sources (3)

via Wikidata · CC0

~35 min read

Encyclopedic overview

Many local anesthetics fall into two general chemical classes, amino esters (top) and amino amides (bottom).

A local anesthetic (LA) is a medication that causes absence of all sensation (including pain) in a specific body part without loss of consciousness, providing local anesthesia, as opposed to a general anesthetic, which eliminates all sensation in the entire body and causes unconsciousness. Local anesthetics are most commonly used to eliminate pain during or after surgery. When it is used on specific nerve pathways (local anesthetic nerve block), paralysis (loss of muscle function) also can be induced.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “local anesthetic” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.