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[Use of the anesthetic cream EMLA in arterial punction]
1Departament de Pneumologia, Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau, Facultad de Medicina UAB Barcelona.
Introduction:
Arterial puncture is a painful procedure requiring prior local anesthesia. Various products are available for pain relief, among them EMLA anesthetic cream.
Objective:
To compare pain from simple puncture of the radial artery performed with or without application of EMLA anesthetic cream and after infiltration of mepivacaine.
Patients And Methods:
A prospective, random double-blind study of 153 patients in three groups: group A, 51 patients who were applied 1 g of EMLA cream; group B, 52 patients who were applied 1 g of placebo cream; and group C, 50 patients who received infiltration of 0.2 ml of 1% mepivacaine. Pain was assessed on a 10 cm visual analog scale (0, absence of pain; 10, greatest imaginable pain).
Results:
Pain intensity reported by the patients was 2.6 +/- 1.8 in group A, 2.9 +/- 1.8 in group B and 1.6 +/- 1.8 in group C. The results for group C were statistically different from those for groups A and B. The difference between groups A (EMLA) and B (placebo), however, was not statistically significant.
Conclusions:
Mepivacaine infiltration is the more effective method for minimizing pain from puncture of the radial artery. EMLA anesthetic cream is not effective against pain caused by this procedure.