anesthetics Flashcards
what is the purpose of anesthetics?
- stops pain
- stops burning/stinging associated with dilation
what is the mechanism of action for anesthetics?
-suppress corneal and conjunctival sensitivity
what does combining two or more topical anesthetics do?
- does not produce an additive effect
- does increase the risk of side effects
what is the MOST COMMON side effect?
mild stinging and burning
if a patient is allergic to one anesthetic, what should you do? THE PATIENT HAS HYPERSENSITIVITY
- use another one
- there is little cross reactivity among anesthetics
should you use anesthetics when you want to see what kind of infection a patient has?
- nope
- they kill culture
- proparacaine is the least toxic
should you use anesthetics for dry eye testing?
- nope
- youll get a false positive from epithelial toxicity
pachymetry
-transient corneal swelling following anesthetic use which can throw off test
do anesthetics have enothelial or exothelial toxicity?
both
proparacrine
- 0.5% solution
- should be tightly sealed, opaque, refrigerated
should you use proparacrine if it is yellow?
- nope
- keep in refrigeration to slow decoloration
toxicity of proparacrine
- low systemic toxicity
- poor penetration of conjunctiva and cornea
why is proparacrine awesome?
- low corneal toxicity
- least bacteriocidal
- least unconfortable
what is the goal of eye drop instillation?
-deliver a full dose of the drug to the eye while minimizing systemic exposer and maximizing patient safety and comfort
should you inform your patient the drops might sting?
duh
