Prolonged peripheral nerve blockade in patients using lithium carbonate

Abstract Peripheral nerve blocks with local anaesthesia are routinely utilized in oral surgical procedures to achieve anaesthesia at the operative site. A number of local tissue factors as well as systemic conditions and medications may alter the onset, depth and duration of peripheral nerve blocks. This article describes two cases of extremely prolonged anaesthesia in patients treated with chronic oral lithium carbonate who had been administered inferior alveolar, lingual, long buccal, greater palatine and posterior superior alveolar nerve blocks with lidocaine with adrenaline for surgical removal of an upper and a lower third molar tooth. A possible relation with systemic lithium therapy and its probable mode of action are explored.