Thermoresponsive nanogels for prolonged duration local anesthesia

Nanogels based on poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) are attractive vehicles for prolonged duration local anesthesia because of their tunable size, number of functional groups, thermoresponsiveness and anionic charge. Nerve block durations of up to 9h were achieved using acrylic acid-loaded nanogels loaded with bupivacaine. Increasing the anionic charge density of the nanogels or (for more highly acid-functionalized nanogels) decreasing the nanogel …