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The Effect of Injection Speed on the Pain of Lidocaine Infiltration
Author(s) -
Krause Richard S.,
Moscati Ronald,
Filice Michael,
Lerner E. Brooke,
Hughes David
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
academic emergency medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.221
H-Index - 124
eISSN - 1553-2712
pISSN - 1069-6563
DOI - 10.1111/j.1553-2712.1997.tb03675.x
Subject(s) - lidocaine , medicine , visual analogue scale , anesthesia , pain score , crossover study , randomized controlled trial , injection site , infiltration (hvac) , surgery , placebo , physics , alternative medicine , pathology , thermodynamics
Objective : To determine whether reducing the speed of injection is effective in reducing injection pain for buffered and unbuffered lidocaine solutions. Methods : A prospective, single‐blind, randomized, crossover, laboratory study was performed. Adult volunteers were recruited from ED staff at an urban teaching hospital to serve as subjects. Twenty‐nine subjects each received 4 1‐mL injections into the dorsum of the hands. Each subject received fast and slow injections of buffered and unbuffered lidocaine. Subjects rated the pain of each injection on a 100‐mm visual analog scale (VAS). Mean pain scores for each intervention were compared using analysis of variance. Results : The mean pain VAS score for fast injection of buffered lidocaine was 14.1 mm. For slow buffered injection, the mean pain score was 11.4 mm (p = 0.98). For unbuffered lidocaine, the means were 28.7 mm for fast injection and 22.2 mm for slow injection (p = 0.40). Conclusions : Reducing injection speed did not produce a statistically significant change in injection pain for either buffered or unbuffered solutions.