Pharmacology for Regional Anaesthesia
Highlights
- In 1943 Lofgren developed lidocaine. This was an amide and had a low risk of allergic reactions. This was followed by mepivacaine (1957), prilocaine (1960), bupivacaine (1963), ropivacaine(1997) and levobupivacaine (2000). (View Highlight)
- An easy method to determine if a local anaesthetic is an ester or an amide is to check the prefix. Amides have an ‘i’ in the prefix, esters do not. (View Highlight)
- It is four times more potent than lidocaine. Therefore, 0.25% bupivacaine is equipotent with 1% lidocaine (View Highlight)
- MAXIMUM SAFE DOSE OF EPINEPHRINE = 4 MICROGRAMS PER KG. (View Highlight)