Surgical wound infiltration by local anesthetic: Wound infiltration

A large number of surgical interventions are performed ambulatory under local infiltrative anesthesia. Local anesthetic wound infiltration provides anesthesia for minor surgical procedures and perioperatively improves analgesia after surgery in general anesthesia as part of a multimodal analgesic approach. The effect of a single block wound infiltration at the end of a surgical procedure in general or regional anesthesia provides additional analgesia for several hours. Infiltrative local anesthesia performed in a continuous modality reduces the use of analgesics, prolongs duration of analgesia and enhances the patient's mobilization. Benefits of local infiltrative anesthesia are described in inguinal hernioplasty, breast surgery, sternotomy, orthopedic, and gynecological surgery. However, in abdominal surgery, continuous infiltrative local anesthesia is combined with other analgesic modalities respecting complex innervation of the abdominal wall and intra-abdominal organs,. Wound infiltration is a safe technique without the risk of surgical wound infection. There is a lack of data about cost-benefit ratio when wound infiltration is used. In order for local infiltrative anesthesia to fully meet the expectations it is necessary to have mastery of the relatively simple technique, and the knowledge of when it is suitable to appply.