Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 28, 2026

Assessing Changes in Volatile General Anesthetic Sensitivity of Mice after Local or Systemic Pharmacological Intervention
Published on: October 16, 2013
In vitro effects of local anaesthetics on the thromboelastographic profile of parturients
1Department of Anaesthesia, National University Hospital 5, Lower Kent Ridge,Singapore 119074, Singapore.
Background:
Post-dural puncture headache can be an incapacitating complication of obstetric epidural analgesia/anaesthesia and early or prophylactic epidural blood patch (EBP) is one of the treatment options. Although local anaesthetic (LA) agents have been shown to have anticoagulation effects in vitro, peri-partum women are known to be hypercoagulable. We postulated that the presence of residual LA might not result in impaired haemostasis of the EBP in parturients.
Methods:
Blood samples from 10 healthy term parturients were subjected to thromboelastography after the addition of four different LA (lidocaine, bupivacaine, levobupivacaine, and ropivacaine) preparations.
Results:
There was a significant reduction in reaction (R) and coagulation (K) time (P<0.001, P<0.05) and an increase in alpha degrees angle (P<0.01) when comparing undiluted blood with the saline control group. Maximum amplitude (MA) and clot lysis (Ly30) did not change significantly despite the 50% dilution. The thromboelastographic parameters of all four LA-treated groups were no different from their saline controls and from each other.
Conclusion:
At clinical dosages, LA did not cause any hypocoagulable changes on the thromboelastographic profile of healthy parturients.
Related Concept Videos
Local Anesthetics: Chemistry and Structure-Activity Relationship
Local Anesthetics: Pharmacokinetics
Local Anesthetics: Differential Sensitivity of Nerve Fibers
Local Anesthetics: Clinical Application as Surface, Infiltration, and Conduction Block Anesthesia
Local Anesthetics: Clinical Application as Spinal Anesthesia
Local Anesthetics: Clinical Application as Epidural Anesthesia
Since epidural anesthetics can be infused through an epidural catheter, all types of drugs, including short-acting ones, can be administered. Chloroprocaine and lidocaine are examples of short and long-duration anesthetics, respectively. Bupivacaine...

