Office-based surgery clinical guidelines

Guideline highlights

• Addresses the clinical use and safety of local anesthetics (topical, infiltrative, and infiltrative tumescent) commonly used in office-based dermatologic surgery for adult and pediatric patients.

  • While anxiolytics, sedatives, and other systemic medications may be used for office-based procedures, these methods are not discussed in this guideline, as they are forms of systemic and not local anesthesia.

  • Anesthetic toxicity is rare in the dermatologic office setting, and therefore management of local anesthetic toxicity is not addressed in this guideline.

  • Other aspects, such as physician and staff certification, credentialing and privileging, facility accreditation, office equipment and set-up requirements, and legal/regulatory compliance, or any other administrative requirements and regulations fall beyond the scope of this guideline.

• The work group was composed of dermatologist experts in different areas (including pediatric population), an anesthesiologist, and a patient advocate from the Dermatologist Nurses’ Association.

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