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THEORIES OF LOCAL ANESTHETIC ACTION

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-local anesthetics bind to sodium channels in the inactive state therefore preventing the next subsequent channel activation
-inhibition of subsequent channel activation prevents membrane depolarization and therefore inhibits action potential propagation
critical volume hypothesis: may penetrate the membrane creating and expansion to the membrane altering the ion channels
surface charge theory: inhibition of depoarization due to partial penetration of local anesthetics within the axon