An Experimental Study about the Effect of Local Anesthesia on Skin Flap Survival

Despite the wide use of local anesthetics in surgery, relatively little has been proven about the effects of these agents on skin flaps. The following investigation was undertaken to study the influence of local anesthetic agents, which and without epineprine, on the survival of skin flaps in the rabbits. Infiltration with xylocaine or procaine alone had no influence on the viability of either nondelayed or delayed flaps. However, the addition of 1:100,000 epinephrine, which was not detrimental to survival length in nondelayed flaps, significantly reduced the surviving length in delayed skin flaps.