Towards Painless Anesthesia

Hair Restoration surgery is a relatively painless procedure with the possible exception of the anesthesia part of the procedure. It is peculiar but true that the part of the procedure concerned with preventing pain is the only painful part. The pain arises from two sources.

The first is that the anesthetic solution is by necessity acidic, hence it causes pain when injected into neutral human tissues. This anesthetic solution can be neutralized to a more neutral pH, but this would increase the likelihood of causing swelling. The second factor in the causation of discomfort or pain is the rate of injection. The faster the rate of injection the greater the pain.

Valium administered 20 minutes before the anesthesia starts does much to relax the patient, decrease the perception of pain and make the administration of local anesthetic much safer. The use of midwest anesthetic device is very well tolerated by controlling the rate of injection of the local anesthetic. Fortunately, the lidocaine is very fast acting. It is also very useful to reinforce the area after about 60 to 90 minutes with a longer acting local anesthetic such as marcaine. There are other techniques that can aid in decreasing discomfort. The use of a hand held vibrator can be very helpful in decreasing the discomfort of the injection. Of help too is the use of ice to slow the transmission of pain stimuli to the spinal cord and brain. The Anesthesia makes surgery painless and with the use of some of these techniques , the anesthesia delivery can be reduced to only a minor and temporary discomfort.