WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 Devil\u2019s Revenge. Spontaneous Combustion. Hot sauces have names like that for a reason. Now scientists are testing whether the stuff that makes the sauces so savage also can tame the pain of surgery.<\/p>\n
Chili peppers have been part of folk remedy for centuries, and capsaicin creams are a drugstore staple.<\/p>\n
Doctors are dripping the chemical that gives chili peppers their fire directly into open wounds during knee replacement and a few other highly painful operations.<\/p>\n
Don\u2019t try this at home: These experiments use an ultra-purified version of capsaicin to avoid infection \u2014 and the volunteers are under anesthesia so they don\u2019t scream at the initial burn.<\/p>\n
How could something searing possibly soothe? Bite a hot\u00a0Pepper<\/a>, and after the burn your tongue goes numb.<\/p>\n The hope is that bathing surgically exposed nerves in a high enough dose will numb them for weeks, so that patients suffer less pain and require fewer narcotic painkillers as they heal.<\/p>\n