Anesthetic effectiveness of topical levobupivacaine 0.75% versus topical proparacaine 0.5% for intravitreal injections.
OBJECTIVE
Today no method of topical anesthesia for intravitreal injection administration has been proven to make the patient comfortable yet. We compared the efficacy of topical levobupivacaine 0.75% and proparacaine 0.5% in patients undergoing intravitreal injections.


METHODS
A prospective, randomized study comparing two agents for topical anesthesia in intravitreal injections. Ninety-six consecutive patients were enrolled into two groups to receive either topical levobupivacaine 0.75% (n=48) or proparacaine 0.5% (n=48). Patients were asked to score their pain using a visual analog scale (VAS) immediately following the injection. The average of these scores was used as the primary outcome. The surgeon performing the procedure scored his perception of the patients' pain using the Wong-Baker FACES scale.


RESULTS
Mean VAS pain scores for two groups were found to be 44.77 ± 16.42 and 34.18 ± 14.83, respectively. Mean VAS pain score in the proparacaine group was significantly lower than that in the levobupivacaine group (P= 0.003). Mean Wong-Baker FACES scores for the two groups were 1.08 ± 0.49 and 1.10 ± 0.30, respectively. There was no statistically significant difference between levobupivacaine and proparacaine groups (P=0.824).


CONCLUSIONS
Topical proparacaine 0.5% was more effective in preventing pain during intravitreal injections.
Department of Ophthalmology, School of Medicine, Kırıkkale University, Kırıkkale, Turkey.
Nurgül
N
Ornek
Department of Anesthesiology, School of Medicine, Kırıkkale University, Kırıkkale, Turkey.
Alparslan
A
Apan
Department of Ophthalmology, School of Medicine, Kırıkkale University, Kırıkkale, Turkey.
Kemal
K
Ornek
Department of Ophthalmology, School of Medicine, Kırıkkale University, Kırıkkale, Turkey.
Fatih
F
Günay
Anesthetic effectiveness; intravitreal injections; topical levobupivacaine; topical proparacaine