Nerve block anesthesia is a technique in which a local anesthetic is injected close to a specific nerve or bundle of nerves, blocking sensation and often movement in the area that nerve supplies. The technique grew directly out of Carl Koller's 1884 discovery that cocaine could numb tissue by blocking nerve conduction, and surgeon William Halsted was among the first to perform deliberate nerve blocks later in the same decade, using cocaine to anesthetize the nerves of the face and limbs before operating. Nerve blocks are used today both to provide anesthesia for surgery on a limb without resorting to general anesthesia and, separately, to control postoperative or chronic pain by targeting the specific nerve responsible.
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1. William Stewart Halsted (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationCocaine and anesthesia section
In 1884, Halsted read a report by the Austrian ophthalmologist Karl Koller, describing the anesthetic power of cocaine when instilled on the surface of the eye.
- Clinical use status
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