Safety of Gebauer's Pain Ease and Gebauer's Ethyl Chloride
Summary
This study aims to determine if Gebauer's Pain Ease or Gebauer's Ethyl Chloride topical anesthetic sprays are safe for use as numbing agents prior to placing epidurals and arterial lines, based on whether they introduce increased microbial growth after application to skin. Due to the recent national shortage of lidocaine, we hope to find a suitable alternative to lidocaine for topical analgesia when placing arterial lines and epidurals. Our hypothesis is that the sprays will not affect the sterility of the area. We will compare microbial growth from three subsequent swabs taken from a single area of skin on the wrist and lower back: one with no treatment, the second after treatment with ChloraPrep, and the third after applying one of the numbing sprays. If there is significantly higher growth in the swabs containing the topical anesthetic spray versus the ChloraPrep alone, this will indicate that the sprays introduce microbes to the sites of skin.
Timeline
- Start
- 2021-01-26
- Primary completion
- 2022-02-25
- Completion
- 2022-02-25
Publications
- Background Mlynek K, Lyahn H, Richards B, Schleicher W, Bassiri Gharb B, Procop G, Tuohy M, Zins J. Skin Sterility After Application of a Vapocoolant Spray Part 2. Aesthetic Plast Surg. 2015 Aug;39(4):597-601. doi: 10.1007/s00266-015-0509-5. Epub 2015 Jun 5.
- Background Polishchuk D, Gehrmann R, Tan V. Skin sterility after application of ethyl chloride spray. J Bone Joint Surg Am. 2012 Jan 18;94(2):118-20. doi: 10.2106/JBJS.K.00229.
Drugs
| Evaluation | Drug | Modality | Dose | Route |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Subject | Ethyl chloride | Other / unclassified | — | Topical |
| Subject | Vapocoolant spray | Unknown | — | Topical |
Indications
No indication recorded.