Why is lidocaine local anaesthetic used in wound suturing?

A cut may need careful inspection before it is closed. Local anaesthetic allows the clinician to rinse the wound, check its edges and deeper tissues, and bring the skin together while limiting pain from those steps. Lidocaine works in the nearby nerves rather than making you unconscious. The treated skin often feels heavy, tingly, or numb, while pulling or pressure can still be felt.

Share details about medicine allergies, previous problems with local anaesthetic, blood-thinning medicines, and how the injury happened. Follow the wound-care plan for the dressing, cleaning, activity, and follow-up. Protect numb skin from heat, sharp objects, and accidental rubbing until normal feeling returns, because reduced sensation can hide a new injury.

Get urgent care for bleeding that does not stop with firm pressure, loss of feeling or movement beyond the wound, a deep or gaping injury, or an injury involving the eye. After suturing, seek medical advice for spreading redness, increasing swelling, cloudy drainage, fever, wound edges opening, or pain that is getting worse rather than settling.

Ask whether the wound needs a review, when stitches should be checked or removed, which activities might pull on the closure, and what signs suggest that the wound needs reassessment.