[Peripheral arteriographies under intraarterial analgesia (author's transl)]

45% contrast medium, to which lignocaine had been added in a concentration of 0.1%, was injected for 44 translumbar aortograms, 26 femoral arteriograms and 4 brachial arteriograms under premedication with pethidine-promethazine. Few patients described their sensations spontaneously; most patients graded their pain as minimal and described only the sensation of heat. When the contrast medium was injected, first without and then with lignocaine, the pain was markedly reduced by lignocaine. No patient showed signs of CNS-toxicity. After the injection of the mixture of contrast medium and lignocaine, the heart rate rose slightly, the arterial blood pressure fell slightly, both not more than after injection of the contrast medium only. The ECG showed no anomalies. The addition of lignocaine to a contrast medium in low concentration represents a simple and, for the patient, acceptable method of analgesia as well as a safe alternative to general, spinal or epidural anesthesia.