Intraoperative intravenous lidocaine.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Most patients undergoing surgery experience moderate to severe pain, indicating the need to improve the anesthetic technique. Intravenous lidocaine has been widely used in the treatment of chronic pain. The objective of this report was to review the use of intravenous lidocaine for postoperative analgesia. CONTENTS The pharmacologic aspects and mechanism of action of lidocaine as well as clinical studies in which the authors used intraoperative lidocaine were reviewed. CONCLUSIONS Intravenous lidocaine can promote analgesia in surgical procedures, representing another alternative for the treatment of acute pain. Controlled studies with different surgical interventions could bring more information on this modality of analgesia.