Efficacy of the topical anesthetic cream, EMLA, in alleviating both needle insertion and injection pain.
To assess the efficacy of the topical anesthetic cream, EMLA, in alleviating the pain produced by infiltration of local anesthetic prior to surgical skin biopsies, a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study was performed on 54 patients undergoing 162 excisional biopsies. Both pain induced by needle insertion and pain induced by local injection were significantly diminished after topical application of EMLA cream. However, part of the effect was placebo, because the placebo ointment (Vaseline) also produced significant pain alleviation.
Raveh
T
T
Department of Plastic and Aesthetic Surgery, Hadassah University Hospital, Jerusalem, Israel.
Weinberg
A
A
Sibirsky
O
O
Caspi
R
R
Alfie
M
M
Moor
E V
EV
Stein
Y
Y
Wexler
M R
MR
Lipton
H A
HA
Neuman
A
A
D000328:Adult; D000772:Anesthesia, Local; D000779:Anesthetics, Local; D001706:Biopsy; D004338:Drug Combinations; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007267:Injections; D008012:Lidocaine; D000077442:Lidocaine, Prilocaine Drug Combination; D008297:Male; D010147:Pain Measurement; D011318:Prilocaine; D012867:Skin / Q000473:pathology*; D012878:Skin Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology; D016896:Treatment Outcome
D000779:Anesthetics, Local; D004338:Drug Combinations; D000077442:Lidocaine, Prilocaine Drug Combination; D011318:Prilocaine; D008012:Lidocaine