Lidocaine Infusion Therapy
 

Hi , I have Trigeminal Neuralgia and I posted over there and someone suggested I post on your site as well, has anyone tried or knows someone who has tried Lidocaine infusion therapy? I watched a video from a TN conference in California and one of the drs. made a reference to using it in his practice. I am wondering all about it now and he only made an off hand comment and I haven't gleaned much from googling it. Thanks!

One of our posters in the UK gets these infusions.

There are a few posters at the RSD forum as well who have used them.
When you go there try the "search" function with "lidocaine infusion" in the field. That way some older threads will be available if those posters don't come here often and won't see your recent question.
I found 106 threads just now. Individual search links do not remain active when posted, so I cannot put my search here for you...sorry.

http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/forum21.html

I have used Lidocaine Infusion therapy over the years, with limited results. The theory is that Lidocaine is a nerve membrane stablizer that potentially helps people with various neuropathic (nerve) pain syndromes. What is does is calms down the nerve membrane and prevents it from firing and producing painful signals. In my experience, the infusion works for a short period of time, but once your body metabolizes the drug the effect goes away. In a very small group of folks, the relief may be longer term. There is not much downside to trying it. It is given over about 30 mins to 1 hour and will make you feel light-headed, dizzy and can lower your blood pressure. Hope this helps

I have been having this treatment every 6-8 weeks since May 2010 and I can honestly say it has changed my life, as the last poster said it lasts for a short period of time but with continued use it becomes cumulative. I get approx 3weeks relief and then the pain creeps back but my quality of life has made this worthwhile. My pain doc is hoping the PN pain will eventually stay away with continued treatment and I am finding my left foot is much better than the right where this has always been the more problematic foot.
I get 90 min infusions, it used to be 6hrs( that was wonderful but has been stopped due to cost), I am admitted to hospital and my heart rate and bp are measured every 5mins as this treatment could induce a heart attack although I am assured the hospital staff wouldn't let it get to that stage.
I have had tinglng lips and am very sleepy for two days after this but it is still worthwhile as I get my life back for a while.
PM me if you want any more info.