Administration of local anesthetic agents to decrease pain associated with peripheral vascular access.

Area of Science:

• Pain management
• Emergency medicine
• Anesthesiology

Background:

• Intravenous (IV) cannulation is a common procedure in emergency departments.
• Patient comfort during IV insertion is a significant concern.
• Local anesthetic agents are often considered to reduce pain during IV placement.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare the efficacy of various local anesthetic agents in reducing pain during IV device insertion.
• To determine the most comfortable method for patients undergoing IV cannulation.

Main Methods:

• A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, pretest-posttest experimental design was employed.
• Eighty-four emergency department patients were allocated to five groups: anesthetic spray, placebo spray, anesthetic intradermal injection, placebo intradermal injection, and a control group.
• Pain was assessed using a visual analog scale before and after anesthetic application, and after IV insertion.

Main Results:

• The anesthetic intradermal injection group reported significantly higher pain levels one minute post-application compared to other groups.
• Pain ratings three minutes after IV insertion were comparable across all five treatment groups.
• The study found no significant benefit of using intradermal anesthetic agents for pain reduction during IV insertion.

Conclusions:

• Current evidence does not support the routine use of intradermal anesthetic agents prior to IV catheter insertion for enhanced patient comfort.
• Intradermal anesthetic administration may transiently increase pain perception without providing long-term benefits for IV placement.