Side Effects of Lidocaine
 

Hey all. Haven't been on in awhile. Still dealing with work comp and nerve pain down my left leg. My question today involves a 'steroid' injection I had recently in my shoulder. I have had, what seems like, a billion injections in my back, hip and shoulder over the past 9 years and I know some or all must have included lidocaine. I've never had any adverse reactions. The most recent injection, the doctor hadn't even removed the needle yet and I was already starting to faint. I've never fainted in my life. He helped lay me down on the table and my face immediately went numb and I couldn't breath. Then I'm sure I began to panic because of all of that, which made it worse. My body and legs were shaking uncontrollably. What the heck happened? Doctor kept saying it must have been the lidocaine. Doesn't make sense to me. Anyone have any thoughts? Thanks.

If the lidocaine hits the blood supply to the brain quickly, you'll have a reaction like you describe. I've had prolotherapy in the shoulder and biopsies looking for prostate cancer and each time enough anesthetic made it into the blood stream and caused the same problems. I never actually fainted but got really dizzy and occasionally greyed out a bit. Hopefully, it faded in less than an hour. For me, it normally takes 10 to 20 minutes to get functional and about 30 to 60 minutes before the feeling completely fades.

Laura has had the same problem as well as the prolotherapist's office manager so it's a fairly common problem.