Skin glue plus analgesic blocks pain in tissue repair

A topical analgesic of lidocaine-epinephrine-tetracaine decreased pain in up to 50 percent of pediatric patients undergoing wound repair with tissue adhesive, results of a new study indicate.

Investigators with the University of Ottowa, Ontario, studied 221 children ages 3 months to 17 years in a randomized, placebo-controlled trial in a pediatric emergency department. Patients required laceration closure with tissue adhesive, and received either the topical analgesic or placebo prior to the procedure, according to the study abstract.

Patients who received the analgesic reported feeling less pain (median 0.5, interquartile range [IQR] 0.25-1.50) than those who were given placebo (median 1.00, IQR 0.38-2.50), based on the Visual Analog Scale (P=0.01) and the Faces Pain Scale – Revised (median 0.00, IQR 0.00-2.00, for analgesic versus median 2.00, IQR, 0.00-4.00, for placebo, P<0.01).

A pain-free procedure was significantly more likely to be reported by patients who received the analgesic with the tissue adhesive closure (relative risk of pain 0.54, 95 percent confidence interval 0.37-0.80).

The study was published only July 29 in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.

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