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Topical Anesthesia

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Evidence-Based Procedural Dermatology

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Abstract

Topical anesthetics offer effective, uniform skin anesthesia while avoiding the discomfort and needle anxiety associated with injected local anesthetics. In the context of dermatology, they may be used to provide primary anesthesia or as an adjuvant pretreatment for alternative locoregional anesthesia. Unlike traditional injection anesthetics, two or more agents are typically combined in a vehicle for topical use. Because efficacy, indications, contraindications, and application techniques vary for these combination agents, this chapter aims to review the most common FDA-approved agents with a focus on best available evidence.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Dermatology, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, USA

    C. Blake Phillips & Conway C. Huang

  2. Dermatology and Plastic Surgery Institute, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH, USA

    Melissa McEnery-Stonelake

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  1. C. Blake Phillips
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  2. Melissa McEnery-Stonelake
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  3. Conway C. Huang
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Correspondence to Conway C. Huang .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Dermatology, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL, USA

    Murad Alam

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Phillips, C.B., McEnery-Stonelake, M., Huang, C.C. (2019). Topical Anesthesia. In: Alam, M. (eds) Evidence-Based Procedural Dermatology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-02023-1_33

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-02023-1_33

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