Table 1

Traditional anaesthetic agents:	Type	Onset	Potency	Toxicity	Duration
Procaine 2-chloroprocaine Tetracaine (Amethocaine) Cocaine	Ester Ester Ester Ester	Slow Rapid Slow Slow	Low Intermediate Intermediate High	Low Low Intermediate Very High	Short Short Intermediate Long
Benoxinate (oxybuprocaine)	Ester	It must be used in lowest possible dosa ge [36] to avoid: i) lethal reactions in low cholinesterase activities ii) allergy to the para-aminobenzoic moities iii) absorption through nasal-lacrimal apparatus or mucous membrane
Bupivacaine Lidocaine Ropivacaine Etidocaine	Amide Amide Amide Amide	Slow Rapid Slow Rapid	High Intermediate Intermediate High	High Low Intermediate High	Long Short Long Long
Newly developed anaesthetic agents
Articaine Levobupivacaine 2-Choloroprocaine Proxymethacaine	Amide Amide Ester Ester	Rapid Slow Rapid Rapid		Low High Low Low	Long Long Short Intermediate

Table 1: Properties of popular local anaesthetics used for ocular surgery [38,40,46,47].