Long-term local anesthesia of the superior laryngeal nerve in the treatment of bronchial asthma

Abstract

Aim. A priority method of long-term local anesthesia of the superior laryngeal nerve in the treatment of bronchial asthma is proposed. Materials and methods. For long-term relief of bronchospasm in patients with asthma, blockade of the superior laryngeal nerve was performed with a 0.5% solution of novocaine mixed with ethyl rectified 96º alcohol. This method has been tested in the clinic in 8 patients (experimental group). The control group consisted of 7 patients who received only 0.5% novocaine solution in the region of the superior laryngeal nerve. All 15 patients were diagnosed with bronchial asthma of infectious-allergic genesis of moderate severity. Results. After the traditional novocaine blockade in all patients in the control group, the clinical and spirographic indicators of the course of asthma improved, but this improvement was short-term (up to 15 days). After long-term local anesthesia in the patients of the main group, the episodes of bronchospasm disappeared in all patients, and the indicators of the lung function after 15 days of examination were significantly higher than the baseline and in patients in the control group. All patients in the main group were examined after 4 months: in 2 patients, asthma attacks occurred once a day, in the rest of the patients no asthma attacks were noted, the spirographic parameters were significantly higher than before treatment. Conclusion. The effectiveness of the developed method of long-term local anesthesia (prolonged blockade) of the superior laryngeal nerve with 0.5% novocaine solution mixed with ethyl rectified 96º alcohol, confirmed by clinical and spirographic methods, has been demonstrated.