Original contribution
Buffered versus plain lidocaine for digital nerve blocks

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0196-0644(05)80206-9Get rights and content

Study objectives:

To test whether buffered lidocaine is less painful to administer as a digital nerve block than plain lidocaine.

Design:

Randomized, double-blind, prospective clinical trial.

Setting:

University hospital emergency department.

Participants:

Adults not allergic to lidocaine requiring a digital nerve block.

Interventions:

Subjects received digital nerve blocks by injection of buffered lidocaine on one side and plain lidocaine on the other in a predetermined, randomized order. Pain of infiltration was assessed. Scores were compared using a two-tailed t-test. Standard 1% lidocaine was used if additional anesthetic was required.

Measurements and main results:

Thirty-one patients were enrolled. Buffered lidocaine was significantly less painful to administer than plain lidocaine (P < .001; t = 4.21). Supplemental anesthesia was required less often for buffered lidocaine (two times) compared with plain lidocaine (six times), although this difference was not statistically significant.

Conclusion:

Because it causes less pain and is equally efficacious, buffered lidocaine is preferable to plain lidocaine for digital nerve blocks in adults.

References (16)

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Presented at the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine Annual Meeting in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, May 1992.

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