ABSTRACT

The local infi ltration analgesia (LIA) technique and associated care pathway have allowed us to minimise or eliminate several factors predisposing to infection and helped to reduce infection rates in our service. Reduction in the incidence of hospital acquired infection was one of the main problems that we were trying to solve by introducing the LIA technique and remains one of its principal justifi cations. Many infections originate not in the operating room, but in the post-operative surgical ward where infection control is more diffi cult to achieve. The LIA technique has added a new dimension to post-operative infection control by limiting invasive techniques, having patients resume their normal personal hygiene activities more or less immediately and limiting the hospital stay, and thereby the opportunity for cross infection.