The American Society of Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine Practice Advisory on Local Anesthetic Systemic Toxicity assimilates and summarizes current knowledge regarding the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of this potentially fatal complication. It offers evidence-based and/or expert opinion-based recommendations for all physicians and advanced practitioners who routinely administer local anesthetics in potentially toxic doses. The advisory does not address issues related to local anesthetic-related neurotoxicity, allergy, or methemoglobinemia. Recommendations are based primarily on animal and human experimental trials, case series, and case reports. When objective evidence is lacking or incomplete, recommendations are supplemented by expert opinion from the Practice Advisory Panel plus input from other experts, medical specialty groups, and open forum. Specific recommendations are offered for the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of local anesthetic systemic toxicity.

These results suggest that P-glycoprotein acts to limit the entry of some opiates into the brain and that acute administration of P-glycoprotein inhibitors can increase the sensitivity to these opiates.

The four opioids studied demonstrate markedly different pharmacokinetic behavior, which correlates well with their pharmacodynamic behavior.

Neurologic complications associated with regional anesthesia and pain medicine practice are extremely rare. The ASRA Practice Advisory on Neurologic Complications in Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine addresses the etiology, differential diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of these complications. This Advisory does not focus on hemorrhagic and infectious complications, because they have been addressed by other recent ASRA Practice Advisories. The current Practice Advisory offers recommendations to aid in the understanding and potential limitation of neurologic complications that may arise during the practice of regional anesthesia and pain medicine. KeywordsComplications of anesthesia; Nerve injury; Spinal anesthesia; Epidural anesthesia; Peripheral nerve block; Regional anesthesia; Pain medicine; Transforaminal block The American Society of Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine (ASRA) convened a group of experts to develop a Practice Advisory on Neurologic Complications in Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine. The goal of this Practice Advisory is to provide information for practitioners of regional anesthesia and pain medicine regarding the etiology, differential diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of neurologic complications. This Practice Advisory focuses on neurologic injuries apart from those caused by hemorrhagic 1 or infectious2 -6 complications, both of which have been the subject of other recent ASRA-sponsored Practice Advisories. The current report is a summation of the Practice Advisory's findings and recommendations. Anesthesiologists are strongly encouraged to read the manuscripts that accompany the present summary document, because they contain the details upon which recommendations are based. The accompanying manuscripts represent most of the subtopics discussed at the conference. The recommendations contained within this Practice Advisory represent the opinions of a small group of expert panelists and are based upon their clinical experience, review of limited scientific literature (anatomic and physiologic studies of animals and human cadavers, case reports, retrospective case series, and non-randomized trials), and open forum discussion. Importantly, in this imperfect setting of controversial topics, limited data, and bias inherent to expert opinion, the Panel consistently tended towards making conservative recommendations. We acknowledge that other experts analyzing the same information may arrive at recommendations different than ours. The recommendations contained herein are not intended to define standard practice or to ensure the avoidance of adverse outcomes. Furthermore, the recommendations are subject to change as new information becomes available. Recommendations from the Practice Advisory are not intended to replace clinical judgment, and specific risk-to-benefit discussions as they pertain to individual patients.Because neurologic injuries related to anesthesia and pain medicine practice are extremely rare, standard tools of evidence-based medicine such as randomized c...

During slow intrathecal infusion, drug distribution in CSF and spinal cord is severely limited in all groups, although significantly more so in the 20-microl/h infusion group.

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Neurologic complications associated with regional anesthesia and pain medicine practice are extremely rare. The ASRA Practice Advisory on Neurologic Complications in Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine addresses the etiology, differential diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of these complications. This Advisory does not focus on hemorrhagic and infectious complications, because they have been addressed by other recent ASRA Practice Advisories. The current Practice Advisory offers recommendations to aid in the understanding and potential limitation of neurologic complications that may arise during the practice of regional anesthesia and pain medicine.

These animal data help to explain multiple clinical studies that have demonstrated that the analgesic effect of spinally administered lipid-soluble opioids is due in part, if not exclusively, to uptake into plasma and distribution to brainstem opioid receptors.