Investigation of Antimicrobial Effects of Some Anesthetics

It is determinated that some anesthetics have antimicrobial properties on bacterial cells besides pain perception. Our aim was to investigate the antimicrobial effects of lidocaine 2%, bupivacaine 0.5%, levobupivacaine 0.5%, ketamine 0.5%, propofol 1%, prilocaine 2%'s commercial solutions against Staphylococcus aureus 25923, Escherichia coli 25922, Klebsiella pneumoniae 574, Candida albicans 10231, Pseudomonas aeruginosa 27853. EMLA (R) 5% and Anestol 5% creams were tested against Staphylococcus epidermidis 35984 and Enterococcus faecalis 29212 in addition to other microorganisms. All anesthetic solutions were exposed to strains for 0, 30, 60, 120, 180, 240 minutes at room temparature. The inoculums taken from diluated suspensions were reinoculated on blood agar at 37 degrees C for 18-24 hours, then colony forming units were counted.Most strains had their growth inhibited by prilocaine, ketamine, lidocaine, EMLA (R) and anestol, which corresponds to a 1/10.000 dilution of anesthetic solutions. Bupivacaine reduced the viable cells of S.aureus and E.coli. Propofol did not inhibit any of the microorganisms tested except E. coil and levobupivacaine had a poor antimicrobial effect on P.aeruginosa.Prilocaine, ketamine, lidocaine solutions showed inhibitory effect on bacterial growth. EMLA (R) and Anestol creams had significant antimicrobial properties on common wound pathogenic bacteria in vitro.