ABSTRACT
Local anesthetics have been used to provide pain relief in labor and for a variety of operations. Local anesthetics may be administered by a number of different routes to provide anesthesia: by local infiltration, intravenous regional anesthesia, field block, nerve plexus block, or central regional block. As well as facilitating intra-and postoperative analgesia, some postoperative complications, in particular thromboembolism, have been reduced in hip, urological, knee, and vascular surgery (1). High-risk surgical patients have a reduced incidence of cardiovascular failure, major infections, show a reduced stress response, and incur lower hospital costs (2). In obstetrics, maternal anesthetic mortality has been reduced by the increased use of regional anesthesia for cesarean section in preference to general anesthesia (3).
