Ad. Pay et J. Kenealy, THE USE OF NERVE BLOCKS IN THE LASER TREATMENT OF CUTANEOUS LESIONS, British Journal of Plastic Surgery, 50(2), 1997, pp. 132-134
Lasers are now well accepted as standard treatment for many cutaneous
lesions. Many types of laser treatment require pain relief, the choice
s being general anaesthesia, (particularly in younger patients), or lo
cal or topical anaesthesia (EMLA). There have been few reports on the
specific use of local anaesthetic nerve blocks in the laser treatment
of cutaneous lesions. We present our experience of 816 nerve blocks in
135 patients (53 males, 82 females; age range 5-73 years, median 27 y
ears) during 877 treatment sessions. 96% of the nerve blocks provided
complete anaesthesia in the required anatomical area. Only 9 (7%) pati
ents (1.1% of the 816 nerve blocks) developed complications that could
be attributed to the anaesthetic blockade. We recommend nerve blocks
as a safe and efficacious method of anaesthesia during the laser treat
ment of cutaneous lesions.