A clinical trial of long-acting local anesthetics for periodontal surgery

The efficacy of long-acting local anesthetics for anesthesia during periodontal surgery and for analgesia during the immediate postoperative period was evaluated. The rationale for using long-acting local anesthetics such as etidocaine and bupivacaine is that they can provide surgical anesthesia and, because of their long duration, prevent discomfort that may occur for 4-6 hours postoperatively. Two clinical trials were performed. The first enrolled patients requiring bilateral periodontal surgery. Using a matched pair design and double-blind randomized study conditions, 2% lidocaine 1/100,000 epinephrine was compared with 1.5% etidocaine 1/200,000 epinephrine for periodontal surgery. The time until complete recovery and the time until pain onset were found to be longer for the etidocaine surgeries. Postoperative pain appeared more severe, and the need for oral analgesics was greater for the lidocaine surgeries. Surgeons' rating of surgical bleeding was significantly greater for the etidocaine procedures. When matched bilateral surgeries were not available, a second double-blind randomized parallel trial was performed that compared 1.5% etidocaine 1/200,000 epinephrine to 0.5% bupivacaine 1/200,000 epinephrine. No significant differences were seen in the quality of anesthesia, degree of bleeding, or postoperative pain between these two long-acting anesthetics.