Capsaicin Tested On Surgical Wounds

Ponca City, We Love You writes "Bite a hot pepper, and after the burn your tongue goes numb. The Baltimore Sun reports that Capsaicin, the chemical that gives chili peppers their fire, is being dripped directly into open wounds during highly painful operations, bathing surgically exposed nerves in a high enough dose to numb them for weeks. As a result patients suffer less pain and require fewer narcotic painkillers as they heal. 'We wanted to exploit this numbness,' says Dr. Eske Aasvang, a pain specialist who is testing the substance. Capsaicin works by binding to C fibers called TRPV1, the nerve endings responsible for long-lasting aching and throbbing pain. Experiments are under way involving several hundred patients undergoing various surgeries, including knee and hip replacements using an ultra-purified version of Capsaicin to avoid infection. Volunteers are under anesthesia so they don't feel the initial burn."

Comments

In other news worlds hottest pepper "discovered"

[psyclone]

The hottest pepper record has been broken.

In the Scoville Organoleptic Test, the Bhut Jolokia pepper scores over 1,000,000

Re:Anesthesia notes

[Puff of Logic]

Of note, capsaicin is also used in "pepper spray" self-defense products advertised to women in particular. I wonder if one could become numb to this after repeated sprayings. Hmmm, anybody on slashdot may be able to answer this from experience? :) Speaking as an ex-law enforcement officer, I can say that there are numerous reports of frequent fliers (if you get my meaning) being relatively insensitive to the effects of being sprayed. Although I can't cite personal experience with such a phenomenon, that it was included in official training sessions suggests at least a modicum of truth. Rather more anecdotally, I've heard some officers claim that individuals who habitually consume large quantities of spicy foods are also less susceptible to the effects of OC spray, although the blinding/irritation effect seemed unchanged. I'm not sure I give much credence to the latter notion, however.

cheers.

Re:Haven't I seen this before?

[swillden]

Oh yeah! I'm experiencing dupe-ja-vu!

Nope, you haven't seen it before. That non-dupe is about a completely different anesthesia-related use of capsaicin. The purpose there is to enable the distribution of an anesthetic that only works from the inside into the cells.

The purpose here is to give the nerve endings such an intense blast of pain that they go numb for days or weeks. This would be horrendously agonizing to the patient, but they're already under anesthetic and so don't notice it. Then, those nerve endings being numb for a few weeks reduces the need for post-surgery narcotics.

Same drug, same general area of research (anesthetics), completely different usage.

Re:Numb for weeks?!?

[RasputinAXP]

Except if they're using medical-grade extract of capsaicin, you're talking a Scoville Rating of 100K-300K for a Habanero pepper. Nordihydrocapsaicin is 9.1 million Scovilles, and pure capsaicin is at least 15 million.

In short, I think the doctors and chemists know more than you do.

Re:Jalapenos

[p00pyd00py]

If a Jalapeno hurts you then you better not eat a 'hot' pepper. On the Scoville scale a Jalapeno is only about 5000 scoville units. A Cayenne is about 30,000. A Habanero is rougly 350,000. And the new record holder is the Naga Jookla at around 1,000,000. Go eat a Naga and see how you feel afterwards, wimp. :)