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The Burning Truth
Author(s) -
Shulkin David J.,
Bari Merle M.
Publication year - 1989
Publication title -
international journal of dermatology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.677
H-Index - 93
eISSN - 1365-4632
pISSN - 0011-9059
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-4362.1989.tb02524.x
Subject(s) - library science , computer science
We have noted that many of our colleagues uniformly try to spare their patients the unpleasant effect of local lidocaine infiltration by preceding the procedure with, "You may feel some burning as 1 inject the medication". We have wondered if this wasn't a self-fulfilling prophecy that actually added discomfort to the infiltration. We divided 75 patients, 18 years or older, who received intradermal lidocaine injections into three groups. One group was told that the injection of 1 % lidocaine would be associated with burning that may cause some discomfort, another group was informed that there should be no burning or discomfort, and a third group was given no information about the anesthesia. Each group was told that they would feel a small needle prick prior to the infiltration. After the injection, patients were asked to characterize the experience on a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being no discomfort and 10 being the worst discomfort ever experienced. The injections were done by one of two physicians and were administered with a 30-gauge needle. The results are shown in table 1. Patients warned of burning Patients given no information Patients told there should be no burning or discomfort