Early tests suggest 2-heptanone may also find a role in humans as a local anaesthetic.

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In many cases a local anaesthetic was applied before the limb was removed with simple surgical instruments.

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Mrs Cannon, a great-grandmother from Wavertree, Liverpool, has had two courses of RFA under a local anaesthetic.

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Morphine will be replaced with a local anaesthetic stored in a small gadget.

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Local dealers then cut it with other chemicals such as benzocaine, a local anaesthetic which simulates the numbing effect that real cocaine has on the gums.

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But a British expert said that while giving only a local anaesthetic for such a major operation had advantages, it also involved extra risks for the patient.

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If thawed semen is used, it has to be injected directly into the uterus through the ewe's belly wall, which requires a local anaesthetic and also large quantities of defrosted semen.

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One of the human volunteers was examined after inhaling 0.0035 ounces (100 milligrams) of cocaine, "a drug routinely used in ear, nose, and throat medicine as a local anaesthetic and vasoconstrictor, " the researchers write in the British Medical Journal this week.

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It can be corrected with surgery that can be done as a day case, under local anaesthetic and sedation.

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