5 tips for safer local anesthesia care

The Association of periOperative Registered Nurses plans to release an update to its 2007 Recommended Practices for Managing the Patient Receiving Local Anesthesia next year.

Mary Ogg, MSN, RN, a perioperative nursing specialist and lead author of the 2015 Guidelines for Care of the Patient Receiving Local Anesthesia, recently shared five updates to previous recommendations with Periop Insider, AORN's weekly newsletter.

1. The new guidelines outline symptoms of local anesthetic systemic toxicity and nurse protocol when LAST is suspected.

2. A new graphic is included to help nurses assess patient acuity and have new information on assessing patient allergies and sensitivities to local anesthesia.

3. Nurses should monitor and document patients' physiological and psychological responses to local anesthesia, and the new guidelines detail what they should be monitoring.

4. There are two groups of local anesthetics, the aminoamide group and the aminoester group, and the guidelines have a graphic explaining the onset and duration of both groups.

5. Some patients are allergic to local anesthetics, and the new guidelines go over signs and symptoms of an allergic reaction.

"Local anesthesia care presents unique challenges for the perioperative nurse, depending on the patient, the procedure and the local anesthesia used," Ms. Ogg told Periop Insider. "A nurse's critical thinking skills are the best tool for achieving safe local anesthesia care and these guidelines support critical thinking with evidence-based recommendations for care considerations."

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