Additives to Local Anesthetics for Peripheral Nerve Blocks or Local Anesthesia: A Review of the Literature

SUMMARY

A multitude of studies have focused on individual additives to local anesthetics and their effect on quality, onset, duration, spread and selectivity, as well as the potential toxic effects of their use. This review aims to give a broad overview of the current evidence in this developing field, based on beneficial and adverse effects of these drugs. We discuss the limitations of the available data and hope to convey implications and future perspectives for clinicians and researchers alike.

KEYWORDS::

• additives
• analgesic duration
• analgesic quality
• block onset
• local anesthesia
• local anesthetics
• neurotoxicity
• nociceptive selectivity
• peripheral nerve block

Acknowledgement

The authors would like to thank D Bugada for his helpful comments on this manuscript in progress.

Financial & competing interests disclosure

SG Memtsoudis was funded by the Anna Maria and Stephen Keller Career Development Award, New York, NY, USA. The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.

Additional information

Funding

SG Memtsoudis was funded by the Anna Maria and Stephen Keller Career Development Award, New York, NY, USA. The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed. No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.