Nursing Students General Students
Published Nov 2, 2007
natrgrrl
405 Posts
I can't quite seem to figure out the difference between local and regional anesthesia. Can someone explain this to me?
Thanks.
Daytonite, BSN, RN
1 Article; 14,604 Posts
This is information from a patient teaching sheet about anesthesia from my local hospital. According to it, it has to do with how the drug is delivered:
Here are weblinks to information about the different types of anesthesia. Other sources seem to indicate that the consciousness of the patient is also a deciding factor. For local anesthesia the patient is conscious. For regionals, the patient can either be under conscious sedation or awake. They all seem to say something different, so I can see why you are having difficulty figuring out the difference. I would say that a local covers only a small area, where a regional covers a larger area of the body--if you had to distinguish between the two: