Are surgeons overdosing patients with lidocaine?

Local anesthetics have long been used since the 1850s following the first pure extraction of cocaine from coca leaves. Cocaine was a potent anesthetic, however, it led to deaths and addictions for health care members and patients alike [1]. Other local anesthetics such as tetracaine, tropocaine, lidocaine, bupivacaine and more recently, ropivacaine, were synthesized to minimize the cocaine toxicity. These newer anesthetic agents included both ester and amide preparationswith varying degrees of cardiovascular and neurotoxicity [1].

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