Achieving the Optimal Epinephrine Effect in Wide Awake Hand Surgery using Local Anesthesia without a Tourniquet

BACKGROUND: In our experience, for all surgeries in the hand, the optimal epinephrine effect from local anesthesia-producing maximal vasoconstriction and visualization-is achieved by waiting significantly longer than the traditionally quoted 7 min from the time of injection. METHODS: In this prospective comparative study, healthy patients undergoing unilateral carpal tunnel surgery waited either 7 min or roughly 30 min, between the time of …