Can anyone tell me the difference between lidocaine and lidocaine with epinephrine? I know that epinephrine is suppose to control bleeding but understand that there are other implications to its use. What exactly are the implications with use on the scrotum or penis? Can anyone lend any insight?

Thanks.

Dan

Epinephrine is a vasoconstrictor. That means that it will close blood vessels & if injected into a digit, like the penis or finger, will cut off circulation & cause gangrene. Eppy is used because lidocaine is a vasodilator. In order for lido to work it must remain in fatty tissues & eppy thus causes the nerve blockage to last longer.

Does that mean Epinephrine might be usable for the purposes of penectomy?

Remember, gangrene is decomposition & can spread. I do not believe that you would want to do this deliberately. Also, you may wind up causing only partial vascular blockage.

I can't comment on the ability of the penis or testis to survive without blood supply...

But I will say that in all that I have read you should NEVER use EPINEPHERIN (SP?) on the penis.

I have a document somewhere around here from

a book on anestesia that teaches several techniques for doing surgery on the penis, from

simple circumsition to complete penectomy.

They say that EPPI will cause the smaller blood

vessels to colapse and will case tissues to die.

Now on to your postulation that this might be an effective means of preforming a self penectomy...

well yes... just as much as shooting it off or dumping it into a bucket of acid.

You would accomplish your goal, and with very good emergency medical attention you MIGHT live to enjoy it. At the very least you will destroy internal tissues that will begin to ROT inside you. By the time you notice external symptoms it might be too late to save your life.

I just wanted to thanks those that posted a reply to my question. I have met someone who assists a vetenarian and we are talking about using said combination for testicular exploration. I had read about some problems concerning use on the penis but was unsure if it applied to the scrotum and testicles as well. We have been talking about using it on the scrotum primarily to control for bleeding, and I just wanted to confirm the information that he has been providing.

Thanks again,

dan

Maybe injecting lido-eppy into the testis would atrophy them. Any takers?