Mixtures of local anesthetics: bupivacaine-chloroprocaine

Experiments were performed in a rat sciatic nerve preparation to determine the characteristics of nerve blocks produced by a combination of commercially available solutions of bupivacaine and chloroprocaine. A mixture of equal parts of commercially available chloroprocaine 2% and bupivacaine 0.5% resulted in a nerve blockade with characteristics of a chloroprocaine block. Changing the pH value of this mixture from 3.60 to 5.56 changed these characteristics to a blockade resembling that produced by bupivacaine. It is concluded that the nerve blockades obtained by mixing commercially available solutions of local anesthetics are unpredictable and may depend on a number of factors which include not only the types of drugs but the pH of the mixture.