Effects of acute lidocaine administration on the rat prosencephalic enkephalinergic system.

Abstract

Lidocaine is a local anesthetic widely used in therapeutics and as antiarrhythmic agent. However, information concerning possible alterations in the enkephalinergic system after acute treatment with this substance is not complete. This being the case, we focused on analyzing enkephalin immunostaining in several regions of the rat brain after lidocaine administration. We could not find significative changes in rat prosencephalon. These data might suggest that the enkephalinergic system is not altered by lidocaine.