Efficacy and complications of topical cocaine anesthesia in functional endoscopic sinus surgery

Abstract

A 4% cocaine (total dose; 200 mg) solution with 1 mg epinephrine was used as a topical anesthetic for 178 cases undergoing functional endoscopic sinus surgery. Complications were investigated before and during surgery. Bleeding amount and operative duration were compared between patients with and without topical cocaine application. Tachycardia (26 cases) was the only complication encountered in this study. Tachycardia occurred at a high incidence in cases which used atropine as a premedication. Total bleeding amount did no differ significantly between those with and without topical cocaine. However, minimum bleeding cases (less than 20 ml) were found in the cocaine group more frequently than in the non-cocaine group. Operative durations of cases with cocaine anesthesia were significantly shorter than cases without cocaine anesthesia. Those findings suggest that cocaine is effective for prevention of bleeding from micro-vessels and/or mucosal oozing, whereas bleeding from macro-vessels was not controlled by topical cocaine application. Topical cocaine anesthesia produced no major complications, even at 200 mg, in the presence of 1mg epinephrine and when atropine use was avoided. © 1995, The Oto-Rhino-Laryngological Society of Japan, Inc. All rights reserved.