Medicine Atlas

How Healing Is Practiced
Sign In
Text size
100%
Theme
Treatment

Local Anesthesia

Perioperative and Anesthetic Care

Local anesthesia is any technique used to induce the temporary absence of sensation, particularly pain, in one specific part of the body while the patient remains conscious, commonly used for minor surgical and dental procedures. Austrian ophthalmologist Karl Koller introduced cocaine as the first local anesthetic agent in 1884, demonstrating its use in eye surgery, a discovery that launched the development of the modern local anesthetic drugs and techniques used today. Local anesthesia is distinguished from general anesthesia, which induces unconsciousness, and from regional anesthesia, which numbs a larger area of the body by blocking a nerve or group of nerves.

Facts
Classification
Status
Standard of Care 1
Origin Year
1884 1
Connections

Associated With

Source Wikipedia: Local Anesthesia

Long-Form Articles

Treats

Pain, Conditions
Source Wikipedia: Local Anesthesia
Sources
1. Wikipedia
Wikipedia contributors, Wikimedia Foundation
  • Local Anesthesia - Lead section
    Local anesthesia is any technique to induce the absence of sensation in a specific part of the body, generally for the aim of inducing local analgesia, i.e. local insensitivity to pain, although other local senses may be affected as well.
  • Local Anesthesia - History section
    1884: This is when Karl Koller introduced cocaine as the first local anesthetic.
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Local_anesthesia, lead section
    Local anesthesia is any technique to induce the absence of sensation in a specific part of the body, generally for the aim of inducing local analgesia, i.e.
View the Source
Wikipedia: Local Anesthesia
Wikimedia Foundation
  • Local Anesthesia - Medical section
    Local anesthetics work primarily by reversibly blocking voltage-gated sodium channels in neuronal membranes, which prevents the initiation and propagation of action potentials along sensory nerves.
  • Associated With: Regional Anesthesia, lead section, terminology list
    Regional anesthesia is aimed at anesthetizing a larger part of the body such as a leg or arm.
  • Treats: Pain, Lead: treats Pain
    It allows patients to undergo surgical and dental procedures with reduced pain and distress.
View the Source
Frequently Asked Questions

Who first demonstrated local anesthesia, and with what drug

Austrian ophthalmologist Karl Koller demonstrated it in 1884, using cocaine during eye surgery.

Local anesthesia is any technique used to induce the temporary absence of sensation, particularly pain, in one specific part of the body while the patient remains conscious, commonly used for minor surgical and dental procedures. Austrian ophthalmologist Karl Koller introduced cocaine as the first local anesthetic agent in 1884, demonstrating its use in eye surgery, a discovery that launched the development of the modern local anesthetic drugs and techniques used today.
Comments (0)
No comments yet. Be the first to share a thought.
Reader Challenges (0)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.

View At A Past Year

Choose a year to see this entry's facts and connections as the atlas records them at that moment: what it held then, what it held instead, and what it had not yet adopted. Choose Present for the current record.