Knowledge and safe use of local anesthetics by medical interns in Medellín Colombia.

Conocimiento y uso seguro de anestésicos locales por internos de medicina en Medellín Colombia.

Local anesthetics are used daily in diagnostic and therapeutic procedures, so their unsafe use must be prevented through medical education to avoid adverse effects derived from their use. Objectives: To describe the knowledge and practices related to the safe use of local anesthetics among final-year medical students in Medellín. Materials and methods: This was a descriptive, cross-sectional, observational study using a non-probability sampling approach, surveying 200 adult students in their final year of medical school enrolled at universities in Medellín. Students who indicated they had not taken anesthesiology courses and who did not provide informed consent were excluded. Sociodemographic variables, variables related to the education received regarding the safe use of local anesthetics, and the frequency of preventive practices when administering them were evaluated. Results: 88% of respondents reported having received education regarding the safe use of local anesthetics. Lidocaine was the most commonly used anesthetic, at 94.5%. A predominance of students was unfamiliar with the maximum safe dose of lidocaine. Fifty-one percent of respondents rarely or never calculated the maximum safe dose before administering a local anesthetic, 45% rarely or never monitored vital signs, and 27% rarely or never administered the drug in the presence of a teacher. Seventy-five percent of respondents felt unprepared to manage local anesthetic poisoning. Conclusion: The students surveyed presented deficient knowledge regarding local anesthetics and a poor application of preventive strategies to reduce the risks of administering these drugs.