Lidocaine infusion, basics and clinical issues

Optimum pain management, minimizing chronic complications and ensuring a good safety profile, is growing in importance day by day. Lidocaine infusion has an adequate safety profile and several desirable characteristics in the clinical setting. This review describes the characteristics of this drug, as well as its potential indications. Moreover, it describes the basic concepts around lidocaine use, mechanisms of action and clinical applications, as well as the use of infusions in acute pain and repercussions in chronic pain. A review of the literature in English and Spanish was conducted in several databases, with no publication date limit. Articles considered relevant, without including the grey literature, were selected independently. Lidocaine infusion is an option for acute postoperative pain control in major surgery and contributes to opioid sparing and reduced length of stay, with ample evidence in abdominal surgery, rendering it an option to recommend in various protocols. It has an acceptable safety profile in special populations and it is considered useful to diminish the incidence of persistent, chronic and neuropathic pain related to the surgical procedure.