Local Anesthetics for Pain Reduction Prior to IV Line Placement

Summary

The purpose of this study is to compare the pain level felt by patients when receiving placement of a peripheral intravenous catheter (IV line) following the administration of a local anesthetic. The local anesthetics tested will be lidocaine, buffered lidocaine, and bacteriostatic normal saline. Lidocaine is commonly used as a premedication for reducing the pain upon insertion of peripheral IV lines. However, due to its acidic nature, the lidocaine itself may cause pain upon administration. To help counter this discomfort, pharmacies can "buffer" the lidocaine using sodium bicarbonate, which increases the pH to a neutral value, resulting in less pain. Bacteriostatic normal saline has also been used for local anesthesia with peripheral IV placement, particularly in patients with a lidocaine allergy, as it contains benzyl alcohol which acts as a local anesthetic. There are minimal reports from the literature that directly compare patient reported pain of all three agents to one another, although studies do exist that have compared buffered lidocaine versus lidocaine and buffered lidocaine versus bacteriostatic normal saline. To address this comparison gap, the following research questions need to be asked: which anesthetic agent is the superior premedication for reducing the amount of pain upon administration of the local anesthetic itself and for the pain associated with the peripheral insertion of the catheter? The hypothesis of the investigators is that there is not a significant difference in the degree of pain scales between the anesthetic agents to justify the pharmacoeconomic costs associated with compounding buffered lidocaine. The primary outcome measured in this study will be the level of pain reported by the patient upon administration of the local anesthetic and upon insertion of the peripheral intravenous catheter. A secondary outcome includes a pharmacoeconomic analysis that will look specifically at the cost-savings of using one agent over the other and will take into account the daily time allocated to pharmacy technicians and pharmacists for compounding and verifying buffered lidocaine.

Timeline

Start

2013-01

Primary completion

2013-06

Completion

2013-06

Outcome

Met primary endpoint

paper Intradermal buffered lidocaine was demonstrated to be significantly superior to intradermal bacteriostatic normal saline in reducing the pain of IV catheterization (P = 0.007). PMID 21270583 ↗

Publications

• Results Beck RM, Zbierajewski FJ, Barber MK, Engoren M, Thomas R. A comparison of the pain perceived during intravenous catheter insertion after injection with various local anesthetics. AANA J. 2011 Aug;79(4 Suppl):S58-61.
• Results Brown D. Local anesthesia for vein cannulation: a comparison of two solutions. J Infus Nurs. 2004 Mar-Apr;27(2):85-8. doi: 10.1097/00129804-200403000-00004.
• Results Carvalho B, Fuller A, Brummel C, Cohen SE. Local infiltration of epinephrine-containing lidocaine with bicarbonate reduces superficial bleeding and pain during labor epidural catheter insertion: a randomized trial. Int J Obstet Anesth. 2007 Apr;16(2):116-21. doi: 10.1016/j.ijoa.2006.09.006. Epub 2007 Feb 5.
• Results Cornelius P, Kendall J, Meek S, Rajan R. Alkalinisation of lignocaine to reduce the pain of digital nerve blockade. J Accid Emerg Med. 1996 Sep;13(5):339-40. doi: 10.1136/emj.13.5.339.
• Results Burke SD, Vercler SJ, Bye RO, Desmond PC, Rees YW. Local anesthesia before IV catheterization. Am J Nurs. 2011 Feb;111(2):40-5; quiz 46-7. doi: 10.1097/01.NAJ.0000394291.40330.3c.
• Results Fatovich DM, Jacobs IG. A randomized controlled trial of buffered lidocaine for local anesthetic infiltration in children and adults with simple lacerations. J Emerg Med. 1999 Mar-Apr;17(2):223-8. doi: 10.1016/s0736-4679(98)00157-7.
• Results Ganter-Ritz V, Speroni KG, Atherton M. A randomized double-blind study comparing intradermal anesthetic tolerability, efficacy, and cost-effectiveness of lidocaine, buffered lidocaine, and bacteriostatic normal saline for peripheral intravenous insertion. J Infus Nurs. 2012 Mar-Apr;35(2):93-9. doi: 10.1097/NAN.0b013e31824241cc.
• Results McNaughton C, Zhou C, Robert L, Storrow A, Kennedy R. A randomized, crossover comparison of injected buffered lidocaine, lidocaine cream, and no analgesia for peripheral intravenous cannula insertion. Ann Emerg Med. 2009 Aug;54(2):214-20. doi: 10.1016/j.annemergmed.2008.12.025. Epub 2009 Feb 13.
• Results Nakayama M, Munemura Y, Kanaya N, Tsuchida H, Namiki A. Efficacy of alkalinized lidocaine for reducing pain on intravenous and epidural catheterization. J Anesth. 2001;15(4):201-3. doi: 10.1007/s005400170003.
• Results Windle PE, Kwan ML, Warwick H, Sibayan A, Espiritu C, Vergara J. Comparison of bacteriostatic normal saline and lidocaine used as intradermal anesthesia for the placement of intravenous lines. J Perianesth Nurs. 2006 Aug;21(4):251-8. doi: 10.1016/j.jopan.2006.05.007.

Drugs

Indications

No indication recorded.