Abdi S, Lee D H, Park S K, Chung J M
Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston 02114, USA.
Br J Anaesth. 2000 Oct;85(4):620-3. doi: 10.1093/bja/85.4.620.
We investigated the significance of pre-emptive analgesia using a well-known model of neuropathic pain in rats. Lignocaine, bupivacaine or saline was applied locally to the left L5-L6 spinal nerve before or 4 days after nerve injury. Mechanical allodynia was then evaluated before and after injury. Pre- and post-injury treatment with local anaesthetics both resulted in a two- to threefold increase in the pain threshold, as manifested by a significant increase in von Frey measurements. However, this effect lasted only 24 h. Our study in rats questions the beneficial effect of a single dose of local anaesthetic as pre-emptive analgesia.
