A Comparative Study to Evaluate the Efficacy of Topical and Infiltrative Anesthesia for Dermatosurgery Through a...

Introduction The skin, along with its subcutaneous tissue, constitutes one of the major organ systems of the human body. Dermatosurgery is the branch dealing with skin conditions that operate at the level of skin, without disturbing the milieu intérieur of the human organ system. Materials and methods A cross-sectional study was undertaken, which included 100 patients comprised of 50 patients in each group. For group A, the topical anesthetic agent used was a eutectic mixture of topical 2.5% lignocaine and 2.5% prilocaine cream (EMLA); for group B, infiltration anesthesia with 2% lignocaine injection. Patients satisfying the inclusion and exclusion criteria were recruited for the study. All the participants were requested to rate the pain at the time of drug administration, during the dermatosurgical procedure, and post-procedurally with a visual analogue scale (VAS) separately. Results In this study, 50% of the participants were of the age group of 21-40 years. Males constituted 57.8% whereas females constituted 42.2%. The common procedures performed in the study were electrocautery at 37%, intralesional platelet-rich plasma (PRP) at 16%, and intralesional steroid at 7%. In group A, the VAS score during drug administration was 0. In the group B, 70% had a VAS score of 4-6, and 30% had a VAS score of 1-3 pre-procedurally. The mean VAS score during procedure was 3.06 for group A and 1.03 for group B. Conclusion The study inferred that topical anesthesia is a better choice in superficial dermatosurgical procedures for providing adequate anesthesia and improved compliance when compared to infiltrative anesthesia.