There are plenty of stories of football players "taking a needle" of a local painkiller before the big game so that they can play despite injuries, but I'm having a hard time finding specifics. What would the drug of choice for this have been back in the late 1980's? (Some of the drugs I've seen mentioned in conjunction with this seem to have been invented more recently than that.) Also, how long would the shot have been good for before it wore off? Any common side-effects, other than the possibility of further injury due to playing hurt? Anything else I should know?
Injured athletes "shooting up" with novocain type drug
- Thread starter debirlfan
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Lidocaine, marcaine, bupivicaine were all available then IIRC. However, remember that for good reason it would be illegal for them to do so and would greatly increase the risk of aggravating said injury. Pain is there for a reason, to tell you to stop doing that. Adding a slight amount of epinephrine (it is available premixed that way when desired) will increase its duration of action.
The really horrible, "trainers," would inject steroids along with the lidocaine, may they rot in pieces.
The really horrible, "trainers," would inject steroids along with the lidocaine, may they rot in pieces.
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Legality isn't an issue, and the threat of doing further damage - well, in this case the individual is accepting of the risk. Do you have any idea how long any of these drugs would take to wear off? Would any be effective for a few hours? Thanks!
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Very Dangerous. Trainers have a tendency to inject them into tendons which has a high risk of causing the tendon to rupture
It's worth bearing in mind that most local anaesthesia drugs are also anti-arrhythmia drugs if used systemically. So if someone is given a lot of local, or it is accidentally given IV then you run the risk of cardiac complications. IIRC Bupivicaine is pretty cardiotoxic. We used to use lidocaine and bupivicaine together as lidocaine acts very quickly, but doesn't last and bupivicaine takes a while to kick in but lasts a long time.
Epinephrine does indeed increase the duration of effect, but it is also a vaso-constrictor so can cause ischaemia if used on digits.
Epinephrine does indeed increase the duration of effect, but it is also a vaso-constrictor so can cause ischaemia if used on digits.
Actually, the guy in the story has chronic pain from an old injury and the dreaded "something he has to do" - he also has access to whatever he needs medically, but narcotics aren't an option because he needs to be alert and on top of his game. I'm mostly trying to figure out how much time I can buy him before the pain comes back.