A general or spinal anesthetic is needed during the procedure.

The women were randomly picked to receive a narcotic shot or a spinal anesthetic the first time they asked for medicine.

It usually is done while the woman is unconscious (general anesthesia), although a local or spinal anesthetic may be used.

A spinal anesthetic is injected to numb the patient, who then receives about a thousand small shocks.

After this experiment - and later that same evening - Bier performed a cocaine spinal anesthetic on Hildebrandt.

Bier performed spinal anesthetics on five more subjects for lower extremity surgery, using a similar technique and achieving similar results.

After this series of six subjects, Bier was to receive a spinal anesthetic administered by his assistant, August Hildebrandt.

Epinephrine/adrenalin is frequently combined with dental and spinal anesthetics and can cause panic attacks in susceptible patients at a time when they may be unable to move or speak due to twilight drugs.

During the efforts to fit the syringe into the hub of the needle, a great deal of cerebrospinal fluid escaped, most of the cocaine to be injected was lost, and the spinal anesthetic was consequently a complete failure.

When epidural anesthetics are placed with a larger needle than that used for spinal anesthetics, however, the likelihood of headache is higher if the epidural needle should inadvertently pass through the dura matter (covering of the spinal cord).

In another study, Dr. Myron Yaster and his colleagues at the Pediatric Pain Service at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore found that children who did not respond well to conventional pain therapy during sickle cell crises recovered faster and reported little pain after getting spinal anesthetics.