Awareness of local anesthetic systemic toxicity among postgraduate residents of surgical disciplines, Lady Reading Hospital Peshawar, Pakistan

Background & objective: Local anesthetic systemic toxicity (LAST) is a rare but fatal adverse event from local anesthesia. Despite the wide use of local anesthetic drugs among surgeons the awareness about LAST has been less assessed in Pakistan. Lady Reading Hospital Peshawar being the biggest hospital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan and having biggest Surgery department of the province, its residents needed to be assessed for the safe practice local anesthesia and knowledge of LAST. To assess awareness of LAST among postgraduate residents. Settings: Surgical Unit of Lady Reading Hospital Peshawar. Methods: In this cross-sectional study 148 residents of different departments of Surgical Unit of LRH were included in the study through convenience method. A validated questionnaire was used to assess safe practice, basic knowledge of local anesthetics and knowledge of LAST. 1st year Trainees and non-consenting trainees were excluded. Data was analyzed through SPSS V20. Results: Trainees of all departments demonstrated poor knowledge of local anesthetics and LAST. Most of the trainees used local anesthetic drugs more than 3 times a week. Only 18% of residents had awareness about safe practice of local anesthesia. 26% of residents had adequate basic knowledge of local anesthetic drugs and only 15.6% of residents had knowledge of LAST and its management. Conclusion: Despite its high usage by residents of Lady Reading Hospital, the overall awareness among residents about safe practice of local anesthesia, toxicity and management of toxicity is poor. Abbreviations: KAP: Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices, LA: local anesthesia, LAST: local anesthetic systemic toxicity, LRH: Lady Reading Hospital, Keywords: LAST (local anesthetic systemic toxicity); Lady Reading Hospital (LRH); Local anesthesia, Awareness Citation: Wadud R, Izaz M, Hassnain SS, Mahmood K, Ahmad MA, Maimoona. Awareness of local anesthetic systemic toxicity among postgraduate residents of surgical disciplines, Lady Reading Hospital Peshawar, Pakistan. Anaesth. pain intensive care 2025;29(3):541-547. DOI: 10.35975/apic.v29i3.2777 Received: February 17, 2025; Revised: April 25, 2025; Accepted: April 25, 2025