Lidocaine Patch for Relief of Pain During Epidural Placement in Laboring Patients

Summary

Infiltration of the skin with lidocaine is standard practice prior to lumbar epidural placement in laboring parturients1. Skin infiltration, although brief, can be very stressful and painful for patients.2 This initial discomfort may cause patient anxiety, thus increasing the pain and decreasing the satisfaction with the procedure. To reduce this discomfort, various topical alternatives have been investigated with varying degrees of success.1-4 Now that a topical mixture of lidocaine that is safe and effective is available, the investigators would like to determine if it can reduce the pain of skin infiltration in particular and epidural placement as a whole.

Timeline

Start

2011-12

Primary completion

2012-04

Completion

2012-04

Outcome

Outcome not reported

Stopped: “Study was stopped due to non-availability of the lidocaine placebo patches.”

Drugs

Indications

No indication recorded.