Local Anaesthetic

A local anaesthetic (‘numbing medicine’) is a medicine that causes a complete loss of feeling to a specific part of your body without causing you to lose consciousness. It works by blocking the nerves from the affected part of your body so that pain signals cannot reach your brain. As a part of an epidural injection or selective root block, Local Anaesthetic works by blocking the nerve roots from the spinal cord.

If a Local Anaesthetic injection completely eliminates your pain, this means that the blocked anatomical structure (e.g. facet joints or trapped nerve) is likely to be causing your pain (Diagnostic block). This injection is usually supplemented by an addition of steroids, potent anti-inflammatory medications, for a prolonged effect.
If the effect from the local anaesthetic injection doesn’t last long then other modes of treatment are used (e.g. Pulsed Radiofrequency Denervation) to provide a long term relief.


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