[Use of intravenous lidocaine in neuro-anesthesia and neuro-resuscitation].

Bolus injections of lidocaine are commonly used during neuroanesthesia to prevent or treat ICP elevations caused by tracheal or painful stimuli. Lidocaine can also be employed in case of hard intracranial hypertension, when the usual therapy fails. With continuous perfusion, at high doses, of this agent, a state of lidocaine anesthesia can be induced which is more readily reversible than barbiturate anesthesia. A simultaneous anticonvulsant therapy is mandatory because of the well-known epileptogenicity of lidocaine. Closed cardiovascular monitoring is also needed to detect early signs of cardiotoxicity. Experimental works point to the effectiveness of i.v. lidocaine to prevent ischemic lesions secondary to a cerebral artery occlusion. This protective effect may result from some properties exhibited by lidocaine and not by thiopental: stabilisation of transmembrane ionic fluxes, inhibition of leucocytes intravascular sticking and tissular migration. So, i.v. lidocaine seems help to preserve or improve cerebral perfusion pressure and in cases when the latter decrease below the critical threshold, to protect against cerebral ischemia.